Harry Potter: The Silent Halls Of Hogwarts
by Shadow Gryffindor
Summary: [AU] Harry Potter has lived alone on the streets of London for most of his life after being abused and abandoned by his relatives. He is found by wizards effectively in his Third Year and is taken to Hogwarts. He must overcome disability and work to catch
1. Prologue: Beginning

**Prologue: The Beginning**

_Godric's Hollow – Near Midnight – 31 October 1981 _

The dark wizard looked down at the piece of parchment in his hand. It read: _**The Potter family home can be found at 500 Griffin Road, Godric's Hollow. **_When he looked back up and focused on the words, a large cottage appeared before his eyes, no longer protected from him by the _Fidelius_ charm after the Secret Keeper, Pettigrew, had given him the parchment.

Lights were on in the lower level of the house. The dark wizard, Lord Voldemort, walked up to the front door and blasted it in with a _Reducto_. Inside, a man yelled, "Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!"

The man stepped out of the kitchen to confront Voldemort. Voldemort saw the raven-hair and furious brown eyes of James Potter as he held his wand leveled at Voldemort. In the kitchen, Lily Potter ran out the other door to the stairs and ran up them to get to Harry's room where he lay in his crib.

"Hello, James," Voldemort hissed.

"Voldemort," James replied defiantly.

"Ah, I see you are not afraid of my name like nearly every other cowardly fool. Very refreshing."

The next instant curses flew out of both wands as they began dueling. Voldemort was more experienced, however, and used much Darker and more painful spells. Suddenly he found himself being rammed hard back into the wall by a pair of antlers. He felt a pain in his side as the impact of the stag cracked several ribs, and a stabbing sensation in his left shoulder as on of the antlers split his skin.

The stag that attacked him then transformed back into James, getting off a few more spells before Voldemort could recover. James's ability as an Animagus was not registered, but Pettigrew had informed him of it. What he had not expected, was how quickly James could do the transformation. Where most took several seconds to complete their transformations, James had gotten the time down to less than a second. Voldemort replied to this attack with a flurry of painful spells, the last one causing the wand to fall from James's hand. "_Avada Kedavra_!" The green beam of light from Voldemort's wand struck James in the chest, instantly killing him.

He stepped over his opponent's body as he made his way upstairs to confront a person that he respected, both for her power and for her intelligence. He hoped that she would possibly join his cause, but did not count on it. He entered the nursery where the red-haired Lily Potter stood defiantly in front of her one-year old son, Harry's, crib. "Lily, if you join me, I will consider sparing your son. Your great intelligence should not go to waste." He said to her.

"Never! I will never join you, you twisted bastard!"

"Fine, we will have it your way. Step aside, so I can finish what I came here for."

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" Lily sobbed as she blocked his view of the crib.

Voldemort was getting impatient. "Stand aside you silly girl … stand aside now."

"No! Not Harry, please no, have mercy, please, take me, kill me instead!"

"As you wish_."_

She lifted her wand to fight him off. Her worries about her son behind her distracted her, and the duel was soon over. Voldemort walked over to the crib that held the crying baby that was supposed to be his downfall. He laughed at the idea as he used the Killing Curse on him. His eyes widened as, instead of striking the boy, the green jet of light seemed to bounce off of a golden barrier that suddenly formed around the boy. Voldemort had no time to think as the curse struck him instead. He felt extreme pain, almost as if his blood was being superheated and his heart was being torn from his chest, as his spirit was ripped from his body. If he had not taken prior steps to ensure his near immortality, he would have been dead just as many of his enemies. Instead, his spirit was able to drift away from his now crumpled body which seemed to be slowly melting away on the floor, leaving nothing but the robes he had been wearing.

The energy that ripped the soul from Lord Voldemort's body had continued upwards and out of the room, severely damaging the ceiling and one of the support beams before blasting a hole through the roof. Young Harry lay in his crib with a lightning-bolt-shaped cut on his forehead, slowly bleeding. He cried himself to sleep from the pain of the cut, no longer able to receive comfort from his now motionless mother, as the ceiling of the second floor of the house began to collapse slowly, piece by piece.

_Godric's Hollow - Early morning – 1 November 1981_

Hagrid, the large bearded half-giant was shocked when he saw the damage to the house from the outside. As he approached the front door, he realised that Dumbledore must have had some sort of wards set up that alerted him to the damage, which was why he had sent Hagrid to check on the Potters.

Hagrid let out a loud cry as he entered the remains of the front door and saw the body of James Potter, a man that he had befriended years ago at Hogwarts. He realised now that Voldemort had been here, and killed the Potters, despite all of the protections that had been used to prevent such a thing from happening. He looked up suddenly when he heard the faint cry of an infant from the upper floor.

He made his way up quickly, stepping over rubble on the steps, praying that Lily and Harry had somehow made it out of the attack alive. He reached the nursery and saw Lily's lifeless body on the floor, and what looked like a pair of duelist robes on the floor in front of her. As he walked toward the crib, he saw the crest of the Slytherin house on the collar. He looked inside the crib and was overjoyed to see Harry looking up at him. He plucked Harry out as gently as he could and took out a handkerchief to wipe away some dried blood on his forehead. When it was gone, the fresh curse scar remained, sticking out from the infant's light skin with a deep red colour.

Hagrid heard the deep rumbling sound of a motorcycle coming up the drive. He wrapped Harry up in a blanket and hurried down the stairs with him, just in time to see Sirius Black enter the front door. "No! No!" He shouted as he collapsed next to his best friend's body. After several minutes of weeping, he pulled himself together, and gently brushed his hand over James's face, closing his eyes. He looked up with eyes red from crying, and for the first time saw Hagrid standing there. "HE killed them, didn't he! Voldemort was here!"

Hagrid nodded sadly and then said. "Lily's upstairs. They were alre'y dea' when I go' here. 'arry's still alive, I don' know 'ow 'e made it, but 'e got a scar from it." Hagrid said, gesturing to the now dozing Harry that he held. "You-Know-Who wasn' anywhere I could see, 'cept a set o' Slytherin duelin' robes by the crib."

Sirius' face lit up when he saw that Harry had survived the attack, and then looked at Hagrid curiously. "What are you doing here, Hagrid?"

"Ah, well, th' Headmaster tol' me to check up on the house, he must 'ave 'ad wards that told 'im the 'ouse was damaged."

"Hagrid, I'll take Harry back to my house with me, and then go over to Remus' place and tell him what happened."

"Sorry, Sirius, but the Headmaster ordered me to take 'arry back to him strai' away if 'e was alive."

"What! Hagrid, I'm his godfather, I'm the one who will take care of him. It's what Lily and James wanted."

"Well, ye'll 'ave to talk to Dumbledore abou' tha', I'm s'posed to meet him and give 'arry to his aunt and uncle, Dursley, I think their name is. The Headmaster gave me very stric' orders about tha'."

Sirius heaved a sigh, realizing that he would probably have to fight Dumbledore every step of the way to be allowed to keep Harry. He would talk to him later. First, he had to find the little tat that had betrayed Lily and James. "Alright, take him for now; I've got something to do first anyways. But Dumbledore _won't_ get away with giving him to the Dursleys. I've met them before, and they're horrible. They hate anything to do with magic. You can take my motorcycle if you want." Hagrid nodded and made his way outside to the motorcycle, and was soon out of the neighbourhood with Harry.

'_Why did I have to talk them into changing to Peter as their Secret Keeper at the Last minute?' _Sirius thought to himself. There had been talk of a traitor in the Order, and most had suspected Remus Lupin, because he was a werewolf. James and Lily had come to Sirius to ask him to be the Secret Keeper for the _Fidelius _charm that would hide them from Voldemort. Sirius had convinced them to use Peter, because Sirius would be the obvious choice, and, if captured, would be tortured for the location. If he was not the Secret Keeper, there would be no way for him to give it away. Now he knew that the traitor had been Pettigrew, and now he had to find him, planning on killing him for what he had done.

_Number 4 Privet Drive – Near Midnight_ – _1 November 1981 _

Professor Minerva McGonagall and Headmaster Albus Dumbledore stood on the street in front of the Dursley home. Petunia Dursley was Lily Potter's only remaining relative. McGonagall was frustrated that Albus refused to listen to her arguments that Harry should not be left with them, knowing from what she had heard Lily say about them, that both Muggles detested magic, especially after what she had seen of them as she watched the house, waiting for Dumbledore. She could not get Dumbledore to agree with her that this would not be a proper place for Harry. She had brought up the fact that Lily and James's will, of which she had signed as one of the witnesses, said that he was to be given to Sirius Black, and, failing that, to the Longbottom, Bones, or Tonks families. She even offered to take him in herself, but Albus remained insistent that this was the best place for him.

They were now waiting for Hagrid to arrive with Harry. He drove up on the motorcycle nearly twenty minutes later, and walked up to them carrying Harry. "Well, 'ere 'e is, Headmaster. I 'ave to tell you though, Sirius met me there, and it sounded like 'e is goin' to fight you for 'arry."

"I suspected he would, but I know he will leave it be when I make him realise Harry is safest here."

"Headmaster, do you thin' You-Know-Who is really gone?"

"Yes, I believe that Lily somehow invoked ancient magic by sacrificing herself, causing the Killing Curse to rebound off of Harry. I looked at the robes at the house, and they do belong to Voldemort. If it were not for the curse scar on Harry, I would say Voldemort was still out there, running around starkers, but I believe he is truly gone, at least from the physical world for the time being." He said with a chuckle.

He took Harry from Hagrid and carried him up the drive. He left him on the front porch, along with a letter addressed to the Dursley's. He turned back to McGonagall and Hagrid, nodded, and promptly Disapparated to Hogsmeade for a long walk back to Hogwarts Castle.

_Suburb of London – 2 November 1981_

The entire street exploded as Sirius Black pointed his wand at Peter Pettigrew. Peter had used the commotion of the explosive curse he had fired from the wand he had hidden behind his back to cut off a finger, shrink down into his rat Animagus form, and flee the scene, leaving a distraught Sirius and a street full of dead Muggles behind.

He hid behind a dumpster, watching as Hit Wizards Apparated to the scene, promptly placing Black under arrest for the murders of the Muggles and the apparent murders of Pettigrew. He would later read in the Daily Prophet that Sirius was thrown into Azkaban for life without a trial, and that he, now thought to be dead, would get a posthumous Order of Merlin.

Peter scurried off the street, trying to figure out what he would do next. He had entered Godric's Hollow yesterday after his Master, only to find Voldemort's robes and wand lying near Lily Potter's body. He took the wand and fled, and today he was confronted by an enraged Sirius Black who knew he had betrayed the Potters.

Pettigrew eventually found a place to live as the pet of Percival Weasley, a member of a Wizarding family, allowing him to keep tabs on what was happening in the Wizarding world. He hid the wand of Voldemort in a part of the Weasley grounds that were rarely visited by anyone. Pettigrew, now known to the family as Scabbers, would remain with the Weasley family for years, eventually getting passed down as a pet to Percy's youngest brother, Ron.

_4 Privet Drive_ – _Five Years Later – 20 July 1986 _

Vernon Dursley pulled into his driveway and went into is house, met by his waiting wife and son. "Did you do it?" Petunia asked him. "Yeah, left him by a dumpster in a seedy part of London."

Vernon had just returned from dumping his bruised and bleeding and broken-boned nephew, nearly six-year-old Harry Potter, in an alleyway in London. He and Petunia had been shocked and outraged when they found the baby on their doorstep five years ago. Vernon had protested taking in the boy, the son of the freak Potters. Petunia had talked him into it, telling him that the wizards probably would have people watching them for a few years to ensure the care of Harry. So, for several years, they put on the act of caring for the child. In reality, they began beating him by the time he turned three, forcing him to sleep without a bed on the hard floor of their cupboard beneath the stairs. Vernon often got drunk on the weekends, leading him to beat Harry even worse than usual, often resulting in broken bones.

Vernon finally snapped the previous evening, beating Harry so severely, it was hard to tell if he was still alive. The next morning Vernon talked to Petunia and they agreed to leave him on the streets in London. While Vernon took Harry out to the city, Petunia cleaned up the blood that had collected over the years on the floor of the cupboard. Their story was to be that Harry had run away, if they were ever questioned by the police.

"He's finally gone, now we can get on with our lives, Vernon." Petunia said.

"It will be so much easier without him around. Plus, we get to use the money from the bank account that got set up to pay us for taking care of him. I'm taking some time off work this summer. What say we use some of the money to go to the Mediterranean?"

"That sounds lovely, Vernon. We can use the money to pay for holiday every summer." Petunia said, smiling at her husband and leading him in the house before going to the kitchen to make another meal for her son, Dudley.

_Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office – Five years later – 31 July 1991_

Albus Dumbledore sat at the large desk in his office, going over the last of the paperwork required for the Ministry of Magic for the next school year. He was waiting for Hagrid to get back from his visit to 4 Privet Drive to make sure Harry believed the letters they had been sending for the past several days by owl to the home, which invited him to attend Hogwarts. When they received no reply, Dumbledore figured that, having grown up without exposure to magic, Harry would think it was some sort of trick to make him look foolish. Hagrid had readily volunteered to go out to talk to Harry.

He had finished signing the last form when a knock rattled the door. He knew it was Hagrid, because he was the only one who could make it seem as if someone was taking a battering ram to a door just by knocking. He waved a hand at the door, opening it, as he stood to greet the half-giant.

Hagrid rushed in as soon as the door opened, looking distraught. "What is the matter, Hagrid?" He asked the troubled man.

"Professor, sir, I went ta th' Dursleys, jus' like you told me, and when I got there, at first they said they didn' know who 'arry was. Then, when I told 'em I was a wizard, they said they ain't seen 'arry for years. Said he up an' ran off when he was six! I didn' b'leive 'em, so I looked everywhere in their 'ouse, but there was no sign 'arry ever lived there."

Albus paled as Hagrid blurted this out to him. "There… there must be a mistake… he can't be gone!" Albus exclaimed.

"Sorry, Professor, but 'e really wasn' there. Them Dursleys did seem mighty suspicious though, like they was tryin' to hide somethin'."

Albus thought for a moment and then said, "Hagrid, go get Severus for me and tell him to bring some Veritaserum with him. You and I are going to visit the Dursley's to find out what is going on, and I want the truth."

Dumbledore sank into his seat as Hagrid went off to fetch Severus Snape. He was beginning to get a bad feeling about the Dursleys, and was starting to think that he should have listened to Minerva those ten years ago. Harry had not been watched or visited for the last eight years, so it was entirely possible that he had somehow run away. One thing that was off in their statement was that the Dursleys had not reported the disappearance to the police, which would have automatically alerted Dumbledore to what had happened.


	2. Chapter 1: Search

Disclaimer: It's JKR's, not mine. All of the characters, settings, and ideas from the books belong to JK Rowling. I have never, and will never profit from these writings. The only things that are mine are the parts of the plot differing from the books, any original characters, and the characterization of Hermione's parents.

AN: This chapter is the most graphic of the entire story. It contains severe child abuse and inference of rape. If you don't like it or don't want to read it, you can scroll past the italicized sections (which contain it) and infer what happened on your own.

Chapter 1: The Search

_Emergency Order meeting – Hogwarts, Great Hall – 1 July 1991 _

The Head table had been expanded to fit all of the members of the Order of the Phoenix. Dumbledore had called an emergency meeting for the evening. He looked across the table as the last members straggled into the hall. Some of the Professors at Hogwarts were members, including Minerva McGonagall, Filius Flitwick, Pomona Sprout, Severus Snape, and Septima Vector. Minerva and Filius had been members since the Order started. Severus, sitting at the table with his trademark sneer prominent on his face, had joined during the war with Voldemort as a spy in Voldemort's ranks. Pomona and Septima had been accepted as members in the years after Voldemort's defeat.

Arthur and Molly Weasley were in attendance, as was their son, Bill. Their other older son, Charlie, was in Romania, working on a dragon preserve. Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt was there as well as several other Aurors, including Hestia Jones who attended Hogwarts at the same time as James and Lily and been a close friend of Lily's, and a few Hit Wizards. Other original members including Dedalus Diggle and Elphias Doge were there, as well as the paranoid, now-retired Auror, Alastor Moody. Andromeda Tonks and Ted Tonks sat near Kingsley. Their daughter, Nymphadora, was a Metamorphmagus who had just graduated from Hogwarts was beginning her first year of her Auror training this fall. Andromeda, a cousin of Sirius Black, was able to give the Order members a different view of the world, having grown up in the Black household which was one of the oldest families associated with the Dark Arts. Ted Tonks, a Muggleborn wizard, worked for Lloyds of London in their Wizarding branch, because of his knowledge of both worlds. He helped the members of the Order in their investing, and he was also responsible for managing the payroll.

There were several dozen other members that were not as involved in Order affairs also seated at the table, including Hagrid, who sat at the table with eyes red from crying. Finally, Albus' eyes came to rest on the man he knew would take the news the worst. Remus Lupin. Remus was a childhood friend of James's, and had fought in court to get custody of Harry after Sirius was arrested, but he had been denied guardianship because he was a werewolf, and there were strict laws against adopting if you were a werewolf.

After the last Order member was seated, Dumbledore cleared his throat to get their attention. "Thank you, everyone, for coming this evening. I am afraid that everything you hear this meeting will be almost entirely bad news."

At this, several people around the table exchanged worried glances. Their meetings hadn't been filled with bad news since Voldemort had been defeated. "Does it have something to do with You-Know-Who?" Arthur Weasley asked.

"No. This has to do with …. Harry Potter." Albus said. The entire table immediately erupted in nervous chatter when he said this.

"What, Albus? What has happened?" Asked a grave-looking Remus Lupin, his voice cutting through the chatter.

"Today, first Hagrid, and then both Hagrid and I went to the household of the Dursleys to make sure that Harry was going to come to Hogwarts this year. He had not answered our letters, so I believed that he thought it was a joke or a prank. When Hagrid was told that Harry did not live there, he came back to Hogwarts to talk to me. I took him with me along with some Veritaserum, and we discovered that Harry has not lived in that house for over five years. When he did, he was forced to live in a small cupboard under the stairs. And… ." He paused here to wait until the room quieted down. "We used the Veritaserum and discovered that about six years ago, his uncle beat him rather severely, drove him to London, and left him laying unconscious in an alley."

Remus and most of the other Order members were pale. McGonagall spoke up with a shaking voice. "Albus, I told you! I warned you that they hated magic. I told you not to go against Lily's wishes and put Harry with those monsters. I even offered to take him in myself."

Dumbledore, seeming older than he ever had before, looked down at the table. "Yes, Minerva, putting him there was the worst mistake of my life. I just could not believe that anyone could treat a child the way Harry was treated, especially their own nephew."

Remus interrupted. "Yes, Albus, we know you made a serious mistake, which several of us tried to keep you from making. But let's focus on what is more important now: Is Harry alive?" He asked hopefully.

"I am afraid that I do not know, Remus. The wards that I used only tell me if he is alive when he is on the Dursley's property. There is a chance that he is dead, but I remain hopeful that he will be found alive, living somewhere in or around London."

"We should start searching for him right away," said Shacklebolt from the far end of the table.

Albus nodded. "We will use the rest of this meeting to plan out our searching strategy, but first I believe we should decide how to approach him once we find him. I believe it would be best if at first only female members talk to him until we can ascertain his state of mind," Albus said, looking at Hestia, Minerva, and Andromeda.

Molly Weasley looked up and asked, "Why only female members, Albus?

"I am coming to that. As I said before, Severus and I went to the Dursley home and questioned them under Veritaserum." He waved his hand, levitating his own chair to the side. Behind where it sat was a large Pensieve. "I have put my memory of the questioning into the Pensieve, along with one I extracted from Vernon Dursley."

He tapped the side of the large Pensieve with his wand. An enlarged image appeared above the Pensieve. This type of Pensieve was often used in court cases to display a memory to a large group of people, eliminating the need to crowd around it and touch it to see the memory.

_A sharp crack of displaced air and magical energy disrupted the peaceful neighbourhood of Privet Drive as Dumbledore Side-Along Apparated Hagrid onto the drive in front of Number Four. Dumbledore walked to the front door and knocked, followed by Hagrid who was saying, "Do ye think 'arry is alrigh'?" _

_"I am sure everything is fine. I believe they lied to you before for some reason, so that is why I got some Veritaserum from Severus" Veritaserum, the strongest available truth potion, was a restricted substance because of Ministry laws, and it could only be administered by a certified Potions Master or Alchemist. Dumbledore, famous for his alchemy work with Nicholas Flamel, received his certification many years before the rise of Voldemort._

_The door swung open and the large form of Vernon Dursley filled the doorway. "Yes?" He asked politely, and then, upon seeing their wizard robes scowled and said, "What do you freaks want? I already told this other freak that you have no right to invade my house like this."_

"_Mr. Dursley, I understand that you do not like us coming to your home, but I am afraid that we have something of utmost importance to discuss. Now if you will just invite us in, we can get this over as quickly as possible." Dumbledore said as firmly as possible._

_Vernon grumbled and looked for a moment like he was just going to slam the door in their faces, but he slowly backed out of the doorframe, allowing Dumbledore and Hagrid into the house. "Okay, but it better be quick." Vernon growled._

_He led them to the living room where they seated themselves in chairs across the coffee table from the sofa that Vernon heaved himself onto. "Now Mr. Dursley, I would like to know the whereabouts of Harry Potter."_

"_I already told your freak here: I don't know! The little freak ran off a few years ago! Good riddance, I say," said Vernon, his face slowly turning puce as he ranted._

"_Mr. Dursley, please calm down. Perhaps you could tell us more about what happened over some tea?" Dumbledore said calmly in the face of the man's anger. _

_He pulled out his wand and conjured a tea set on top of the coffee table. Hagrid poured out a cup for everyone, while Dumbledore levitated several disillusioned drops of Veritaserum into Vernon's cup. Vernon looked warily at the full tea cup in front of him but then picked it up and began to sip at it._

_Albus waited a few moments until the potion had time to take effect on the man in front of him. He had given enough to last for the next half hour. " Alright. Mr. Dursley, where is Harry Potter?"_

"_I don't know. Probably dead or somewhere in London."_

"_Why would either of those be possible?"_

"_The last I saw him was about six years ago, I dumped him in London, and it was sort of hard to tell if he was alive after his last beating." _

"_Beating…" Albus said weakly. "Why would you leave him on his own in London at six years of age? He is your own nephew."_

"_Because he was a freak, and the son of freaks like you. Petunia and I were going to get rid of him right away, but we realized that some of your freaks might be watching us for a while. So instead of getting rid of him right away, we had a nice little slave to do everything around the house for us, and I got someone to do things to so I wouldn't be as frustrated when I got to work." _

_Albus' face was pale, and Hagrid looked sickened. "What do you mean by 'do things to'?" Albus asked harshly. _

"_Well at first I just hit or punched the freak when he didn't do things right. Once he was four, I started with my belt." At this he pointed to the large belt he was wearing, nearly as wide as a normal-sized person's forearm. He grinned at the memory of the beatings before continuing. "After that I started on frying pans and baseball bats. The best times were when I tied him up and fucked him when I was really pissed off. It was great stress relief."_

_At this, Hagrid stood up, his face red, tears running down his face. "You sick bastar'! 'ow could you do tha' to yer own nephew?!" A sickly purple light came out of his umbrella, and hit Vernon. Vernon dropped to the floor screaming and writhing in pain and holding his groin as the castrating curse Hagrid had accidentally cast in his anger took effect._

Here the memory faded out and the second one, the one retrieved from Vernon Dursley, began.

_There was a sharp crack as the buckle of the belt hit the raven-haired young boy once more. He looked up at his uncle, his emerald-green eyes dull and clouded with pain. As his uncle stepped back slightly, it became easier to see the state he was in. His left arm hung limply at his side, obviously broken, his face and arms covered in welts and bruises that were a deep purple colour, his left eye nearly swollen shut, both his nose and lower lip bleeding heavily, tears running down his face._

"_You ungrateful little freak! We give you a place to stay, things to eat, and you can't even get the chores done, that we ask you to do!" Vernon's speech was slightly slurred as he said this, pointing to the fact that he had been out drinking. On the table next to the cowering boy was a large piece of paper with a list of chores covering every available writing area._

"_I-I didn't have en-n-nough time Uncle Vernon. I'm r-really s-sorry, there's just t-too many chores." Harry said timidly, then flinching as he realized he had said the last part out loud._

"_What the fuck are you talking about, boy! I woke you up at five this morning to start on your chores! I'm sick of you talking back to me all of the time! You're a worthless little freak that no one cares about, so you have no right to complain about your chores!"_

"_You're wrong. My mum and dad love me, and they're going to come and take me away from here someday." Harry said, looking as defiant as he could. The one thing he always said something against was when his uncle spoke badly about his parents. He often dreamt about his parents coming and saving him from his uncle._

_Vernon laughed. "You foolish little freak. If your parents loved you, you wouldn't be here! They're off somewhere getting drunk right now. Your dad's a drunken tramp, and your mother is a slag on the streets, which is all you'll ever be good for as well." He said with a frightening gleam in his eye. "Now, I told you never to talk back to me and then you went and did it __**again**__. This is going to stop here and now, you little bastard!"_

_He grabbed Harry by the ankle and dragged him across the floor of the kitchen, and then over to and up the stairs and towards the master bedroom. "Get your clothes off boy!" Vernon said, pulling him into the bedroom. Harry paled and started to tremble. "P-please, n-no, not again Uncle Vernon." He said weakly._

_Vernon backhanded him across the face and then grabbed him by the hair and tossed him onto the bed against the headboard. Vernon rummaged through a drawer and pulled out a roll of duct tape and then clambered onto the bed. "You'll learn your place, freak. This is all you'll ever be good for!" _

_He grabbed the tattered shirt that Harry wore and tore it off of him, causing him to cry out in pain from the friction and the wrenching movement it caused his broken arm to make. This revealed even more severe bruising, several heavily bleeding strips on his back that had been caused by Vernon's belt breaking his skin, and a thick layering of deep scars covering his entire back and shoulders that seemed to be old wounds similar to his current wounds. Vernon then yanked the boy's pants off bringing his fraying boxers with them._

_As Vernon grabbed Harry, he tried one last time to pull himself away with his uninjured arm. Vernon viciously grabbed both arms and yanked them so that his wrists were together. He then used the duct tape to bind them in front of Harry. The pain in his arm caused him to cry out again, so Vernon slapped some more tape over his mouth to muffle him. He forced the boy over onto his stomach and then reached down and began to unbutton his own pants….._

The memory in the pensieve abruptly stopped at this point. Albus stood slowly from his chair. "I am sure you can guess what happened after this point in the memory. I decided to only show the less graphic portion. That was only one of many similar memories I retrieved from Vernon Dursley and viewed, the final one much worse than what you just saw. It seems he began shortly after Harry turned five, and did it at least once a month until he dumped him in London over a year later. I have no idea how he will react when confronted by a male member of the order after having gone through that, so that is why we will have Minerva and the other women go to him when we find him."

He looked at the people seated around the table and saw everyone with a look of horror or disgust. One of the younger Aurors had conjured a dustbin to be sick in. Several others including Remus looked like they were considering the same thing. Every woman, especially Minerva, Andromeda, and Hestia who had been the closest to the Potters, and most of the men were crying at what Harry had been put through at that house.

Several minutes later, a hard-faced Remus Lupin began to rise from his seat. "Excuse me, I have something to do." He literally growled this sentence out, his wolf side coming to the surface.

"Remus, I know that you are thinking of going to Privet drive, and probably killing the Dursleys, but please sit down. Aside from the punishment wrought by the castration curse that Hagrid used on Vernon, he has been taken into custody and will be charged with child abuse and rape and will go to prison. Amelia Bones will have the Muggle lawyers push for the maximum jail sentence. What is more important now is that we begin to search for Harry."

"You'd better hope we find him, Albus, because none of us are forgetting that it was you that put him in that hellhole over the protests of most of us. He'd have been better off living with **Sirius**, after he murdered Peter and those Muggles, than with the Dursleys. The worst he could have done was kill him, which I think would be better than what he went through with those monsters. I'm holding you responsible if he died after his uncle abandoned him." Having said this, Remus sat back down reluctantly.

The rest of the meeting was spent poring over a large map of London to separate areas for different teams to search, with the most searching near where Vernon said that he had left Harry. Surprisingly, Severus only made a single snide comment during the entire meeting about the entire thing being a waste of resources, although the flurry of spells that struck him after he said it probably were a large factor, especially the painful vocal cord freezing curse Remus used.

_Upper room of Hog's Head, Order headquarters – 3 September 1991_

Remus Lupin sat at the main table of the room, going over reports for the second time. They had not found Harry yet, but in several reports there were interviews with local people that had seen a boy that looked similar to Harry at one time or another, but there had been no one that had seen anyone looking like him recently.

Andromeda Tonks, Hestia Jones, and Kingsley Shacklebolt entered the room and sat down at the table near Remus. Kingsley sighed as he saw the stacks of reports on the table. "I've talked to over a dozen people the past week, and no one has seen anyone matching Harry's description for over a year. With all of this press coverage, the Auror's office has started to get hundreds of people, all claiming to have seen Harry, but when we check them out, only a few actually match what we know."

On September first, the Daily Prophet and the Quibbler both ran stories on the disappearance of Harry. They had quickly found out about him being missing after charges were filed against Vernon Dursley, but they held out on a hope that Harry would appear at the last minute and go to school. When he did not, they chose to run their stories. The entire main section of the Prophet was filled with articles and interviews having to do with Harry. There were some radical editorialists demanding that Dumbledore resign from his Headmaster position, as he had been the one to place Harry with the Dursleys.

Dumbledore's trouble from the paper eventually died down, but some other problems wouldn't go away that easily. He had been put under a cursory investigation by the rest of the Wizengamot concerning the use of power of his position as Chief Warlock.

The far more damaging problem was that of the goblins. The goblins were quite upset that Dumbledore, the executor of the Potters will, had intentionally subverted the placement instructions and had placed Harry with the Dursleys who had subsequently abused him and left him for dead. They were incensed at the way one of their largest clients had had their wishes ignored. Pretty much every favor owed him by the goblins was dried up when they heard about it.

He had a rather hard time getting anything done within the Order account and finally set someone else to the task of depositing and withdrawing funds for the operation of the Order. His personal account was even worse. All of the goblin accountants that had been managing and investing his money had quit and all of the other goblins refused to work for him, leaving him to find some less efficient human accountants to manage the account. These problems had given Remus a sort of satisfaction at what Dumbledore was receiving, but knew that nothing that happened to him could even come close to what had happened to Harry at the hands of the Dursleys.

"Ted has been talking to all sorts of people in the area Harry was dropped off, but only a few remember ever seeing a boy looking like Harry." Andromeda said, looking dejected. "I wonder if something happened a year ago that caused Harry to move away from where he was staying. If he left London, I don't think we will ever find him. For all we know, he could be… dead"

"Well, it has only been a few months," said Lupin. "I refuse to give up looking for him until I find him, whether he is dead or alive."

"I know, Remus, I don't want to give up on him either. Hopefully we'll get a break soon, and find a recent sighting." Hestia said.

Remus nodded tiredly. "I really hope so."

_Hogwarts, Headmaster's Office – 8 June 1992_

Dumbledore settled into his chair as he reflected on the events of the past year. A young Gryffindor named Hermione Granger had been attacked by a troll on Halloween. She was one of the brightest witches Dumbledore had seen, and he was relieved when she made it out of the encounter with only a concussion and a few broken bones. Minerva had arrived soon after the troll began to attack, and managed to knock it out before anyone was killed. They could not punish Hermione because she had not heard the announcement to return to the common rooms. She had been crying in a bathroom after hearing several callous remarks made about her by her classmate and fellow Gryffindor, Ronald Weasley.

Then, just a few days ago, he had been called away to the Ministry of Magic. When he returned, he found Professor Quirrell attempting to retrieve the Philosopher's Stone, kept at Hogwarts for safeguarding, from the Mirror of Erised. A short fight between the two ensued, revealing that Quirrell was being possessed by the spirit of Voldemort.

Voldemort had been drifting around as a spirit ever since his body was killed by Harry all those years ago. He had recently become strong enough to possess those with weak minds, and had taken over Quirrell while he was away from Hogwarts on a sabbatical. Dumbledore used an exorcism spell, weakening Voldemort's spirit, driving him from Quirrell and from the castle. Quirrell had been a host to Voldemort for too long, however, and his mind was damaged beyond repair when Voldemort was driven out, causing him to die.

To top off all of the problems at the school, they had had no luck at all in finding Harry in London. By May, Dumbledore reduced the search to only those who volunteered. Remus, Andromeda, Hestia, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Arthur Weasley, and Mad-Eye Moody all continued the search whenever they were not working. Remus, followed by Hestia, put in the most work, several hours every day, insisting that he would never give up the search for Harry.

The only good thing that had come out of Harry's disappearance, Albus mused, was that he had not been present at Hogwarts for Voldemort to attack. He shook himself from his thoughts when he realized that it was nearly time for him to get down to the Great Hall for the end-of-year feast. Once again, the hall would be decorated green and silver to signify the winning of the House Cup by Slytherin.

Even he was beginning to give up hope that they would ever find Harry. The city of London itself was large enough that they could search and never find him. Even worse were the large areas outside of London proper that he could be. There was also the fact that he could very well have left the area entirely, expanding the area to search across the countries of the United Kingdom and even onto the Continent or further.

If they never found Harry, he feared the worst for the world because of the Prophecy. If Harry never came to the Wizarding world and defeated Voldemort, no one else would be able to according to the Prophecy that had led to the attack on the Potters, and Voldemort would eventually have free reign once he found some way to return in bodily form. Dumbledore knew that after their encounter this year, Voldemort would be weakened again for several years, but he would be back soon enough.

He had begun his alternate plan this year. Near the beginning of the year he had begun to give private lessons to Neville Longbottom, the other boy that the prophecy could have been about. Although he had not been marked by Lord Voldemort, Dumbledore believed that he had close to the same amount of power as Harry. He would be their best chance of defeating Voldemort if Harry was not found.

It had taken this entire first year to get Neville to the point where he could be trained. He had come to the school as a rather bumbling and forgetful boy, caused by a magic binding gone awry. Dumbledore had used the binding shortly after he was sent to his Great-Aunt when his parents were tortured into insanity, but he made the mistake of assuming his power levels were the same as Harry. They were slightly lower, causing the spell to overpower certain parts of his brain. The year had been spent removing the damage caused by the over-powered binding.

Neville had become much more confident in himself and in his magical abilities and had even become friends with Ronald Weasley Seamus Finnigan, and Dean Thomas, who had ridiculed him and his bumbling nature towards the beginning of the year, although now he seemed to be taking on some of their worst characteristics including making fun of other schoolmates similar to the way he had been ridiculed, which Albus believed was him trying to fit in with them. The only thing Albus was truly worried about was the group's ridiculing of Hermione who had begun to withdraw even more after the troll attack. She reminded him very much of a meek version of Lily Potter, and he didn't want her to try to hide her brilliance because of bullies. If it continued much longer with her remaining friendless, he decided he would find some way to intervene to help her out.

He was rather perturbed that he was still having problems dealing with the goblins lose to a year after they found out about what had happened. He knew that with the human accountants he had obtained the services of, he was profiting far less than he would if the goblins were managing the account, and he hoped that in a few years he would gain some of his previous status back among the goblins.

_Outskirts of London_ –_ 8 June 1992 _

This was the second time that Remus had been through this section of London. Like the last time, he was methodically asking people about Harry. The Order had produced photographs that showed what Harry should look like now, using pictures of him as a baby and aging him forward with the reference of his mother and father and what he looked like in the memories of the Dursleys for developing the facial features. He had asked them to provide several photos, showing him with different lengths of hair, some of which would hide the telltale lightning-bolt shaped scar he had received from Lord Voldemort.

This was a more rundown part of the city, and he had been chased away from several homes by angry people who insisted he was some sort of police officer and wouldn't talk to him. He walked up the steps to the next home and knocked on the door. A woman with greying hair who looked to be in her late 50's or early 60's answered the door. "Hello, can I help you with something sir?" She asked Remus.

"Yes, ma'am, my name is Remus Lupin. I am searching for a young boy who was abandoned in London several years ago. I have several pictures of what he may look like now, and I'd like you to look them over and tell me if you've seen him around."

"Oh, so you're a policeman?"

"Actually, no. I'm more like a private investigator, and this boy was the son of my best friends. They died when he was one, and he lived with his aunt and uncle for several years before they abandoned him in London."

"Okay, come in, I was just having tea, if you'd like some there's more than enough." She said as she led him in to her kitchen. "How do you like yours?"

"I like just a dash of cream and two cubes of sugar." Remus answered as he sat down at the table.

As she set a cup of tea in front of him, he pulled out the pictures and spread them out on the table in front of him. The woman sat down across from Remus and sipped her tea as she looked closely at the pictures in front of her.

She lowered the tea cup and tapped her finger on the centre picture that showed Harry with longer hair, nearly to his shoulders, and his scar barely visible beyond the fringe of hair. "I've seen a boy that looks just like this before. I think he had several more scars on his face, but the thing I noticed was that strange lightning-bolt shaped scar. Now, where was it I saw him…"

She sat in thought for several minutes as Remus looked at her with hope that she would remember something that would lead him to Harry. "Oh, yes! Now I remember. I saw his picture in the newspaper a few months ago. There was some sort of drive-by shooting at an abandoned warehouse and an older lady and several kids got killed." She continued quickly at Remus' worried expression. "He wasn't one of the ones killed. The woman that got killed had been sort of the mother figure to the group of boys that lived there. His picture was in the paper because he was put into a group home after the shooting and he ran away the next day and they were looking for him."

"Okay, what paper was this in?" Remus asked her.

"It was in the Harrow Times, just two or three months ago."

"Well, thanks for the tea, ma'am, and thank you very much for taking the time to help me out. This is the first time in months that I've talked to anyone who has remembered seeing him recently." Remus said, rising from his chair.

""You're very welcome. Good luck, I hope you find him. It's such a shame that anyone could treat a child like that."

Remus talked to several other people, and, finding no one else that had seen anything of Harry, he Apparated to an alley near a library. He entered the library and immediately went to the area with microfiche copies of the back issues of newspapers. After several hours of scanning through each paper, he stopped when the article that had the picture appeared on the screen. When he saw it, he knew immediately that the woman had been right: this was Harry.

The article did not give much more information about what happened beyond what the woman had remembered. It did, however, give the address of the warehouse the shooting had occurred and the address of the group home that they had sent Harry to.

Knowing for a fact that Harry was still alive, or at least had been alive only two months ago, gave him a renewed sense of purpose. Once he brought this information to Dumbledore, he would have no choice but to once again get everyone involved in the search rather than just relying on volunteers as he had done the previous month.

He asked at the desk for a copy of the article, and once he had paid for it, he left the building and Apparated back to his flat to place a fire call in to Dumbledore to tell him about the new lead and request a full Order meeting.

_Hogwarts – 19 June 1993 _

When the year began, it had seemed to Dumbledore that it was going to turn out to be as eventful as the previous one. At King's Cross station, Ron Weasley had lost track of his pet rat. He chased after it and finally caught it in the streets outside of the station, but had come back too late to board the train. Unable to get to Hogwarts, he "borrowed" his father's magically modified Ford Anglia and used it to fly to Hogwarts along the train tracks. He had crashed it into the Whomping Willow when he landed, and the car had gone out of control and driven into the forest.

Thankfully, that was about the most exciting thing that occurred that year aside from the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor, Gilderoy Lockhart, accidentally being hit by a Memory Charm that ricocheted off of a mirror when he attempted to use the spell on a student who had discovered evidence that he hadn't done the things he claimed to have done in his books and confronted him about it. It had been only a week ago so classes weren't affected, but now he was in St. Mungo's because he could not even remember who he was, and so Dumbledore had to find another Defence teacher for the next year of school. He thought Remus Lupin might accept the position if he offered it to him, he was having a hard time keeping a steady job being a werewolf.

Professor Macintyre, who taught Muggle Studies at Hogwarts, had accepted a job at Beaubaxtons to teach there, so Dumbledore had to find a replacement for him, but he already had several ideas for Muggles who he thought would be willing to teach it. He was hoping to talk David and Emma Granger into coming in to teach. He figured they would be his best choice because they would likely jump at the chance to stay close to their daughter. Besides that, they were the parents of the smartest witch he had seen enter the school since Minerva McGonagall. It would be a strong change in tradition, as the Muggle Studies class had always been taught by a pureblood wizard, or at least a Squib. A Muggle would be able to teach much more accurately, having lived in their world, and having much more knowledge than any wizard other than Muggleborns.

Hermione had begun a friendship with a first year Ravenclaw, and a Hufflepuff from her year during this school year, and she seemed to handle the ridicule of her classmates better, and had become slightly more outgoing. He believed that if her parents were there, she would do even better the rest of her school years.

The summer before the school year had been much busier than the year itself. Remus Lupin had asked for an emergency Order meeting early in the summer. He had been searching for Harry nearly every day except for the few before, during, and after each full moon. At the meeting he had presented what he had found: photographic evidence that Harry was alive and had been in London just months before, and was likely still there.

The next several months were spent much the same as the first months when they found Harry missing, with a full search of the area that the warehouse was in. Dumbledore had allowed the full search to continue until Halloween, and then he broke it back down into the volunteer group that it had been before the new discovery. They had been able to pick up a trace magical signature residue in the warehouse that matched Harry's magical signature, proving that he had been there. But too much time had passed for them to be able to follow a trail of his magical signature residue so that they could find him.

Aside from having trouble keeping a job, Remus had begun to become more frantic in his search for Harry. Dumbledore believed that accepting the DADA position would help Remus out greatly, although he suspected Remus would demand weekends off from lesson planning so he could continue his search for Harry.

Albus believed that if Harry was still alive, his instruments that were attuned to him would detect him within the next year. He was thankful that he had decided against using the magic binding ritual on Harry before he was given to the Dursley's, and had decided to wait until Harry began to enter magical puberty at his entrance into Hogwarts. The binding would naturally make it more difficult for Harry to perform easier spells that most witches and wizards took for granted, but it would become slightly easier for him to perform more advanced spells, although not at the same level of power as he would without the binding.

It would have, as an unfortunate side-effect, suppressed any inherited magical traits, of which he believed Harry might have received many. Because he was not bound, his bursts of accidental magic would become stronger as he aged without magical training, and as he now moved further toward total magical adulthood, the bursts would become detectable to his delicate instruments even with the strong magical background signals that filled London.

_Azkaban Island – 25 July 1993_

Minister for Magic, Cornelius Fudge, was taking his yearly tour of the Prison of Azkaban. Each year he would go through a tour led by the guards. At the end of each tour he would do interviews and pose for pictures for the Wizarding papers and magazines. He had begun the tradition of visits to Azkaban to get more publicity and try to get his approval rating higher by showing that he was involved in many different aspects of the government.

Sirius Black, accused murderer, and resident of Azkaban for the last twelve years sat near the door of his cell, staring blankly through the bars as the Minister and his dozens of aides walked past while being led by two Azkaban Guards and surrounded by a dozen Auror bodyguards. Fudge was carrying the latest copy of the Daily Prophet in his hands. He stopped in front of Sirius' cell and looked in with distaste. "Well, Black, it's been another year, and you look as horrible as usual. Having fun in here yet? I have to admit, you have a pretty strong mind, to be able to stay sane this long, but you won't last forever in here." Fudge looked at him, expecting him to retort like he did every other year, but he continued to stare at Fudge.

What he didn't realize was that Sirius was staring not at him, but at the paper in his hands. The main headline was not unusual: _**Winners of 700 Galleons in the Daily Prophet's Monthly Drawing**_. What caught Sirius' attention was the photograph of the Wesley family who had gone to Egypt with the money they had won. In the hands of their youngest boy was a small rat that appeared to be missing a claw from the front paw. Immediately Sirius knew that this was Pettigrew. It even had some markings around the muzzle that only Pettigrew had. Fudge eventually gave up on waiting for a retort, figuring that the Dementors were finally beginning to break Sirius' strong mind, and he turned and continued down the corridor.

Sirius sat silently for several minutes as he visualized the picture again. The boy that had been holding Pettigrew had no looked to be very old. In fact, he looked like he was around thirteen or fourteen, the same age as Harry would be now. One of the things that kept Sirius sane in the prison was thinking of his godson. He would always try to imagine what he would look like now, and what sort of things he would be doing. The boy was a wizard and likely the same class as Harry, so he had to go to Hogwarts. A guard passed his cell as he muttered to himself. "Hogwarts. He's at Hogwarts."

_Azkaban Island – 30 July 1993 – After Midnight_

The human guards of Azkaban had retired for the night, leaving only the Dementors to guard the prisoners in their sleepless vigil. Sirius had been planning his escape and debating whether to take the chance to escape and go after Wormtail since he had seen the picture several days before. Once he decided his best chance of ever being free was to go capture Pettigrew himself, he worked at prying one of the bars on the cell door aside so that he could slip through.

Now that the guards had stopped patrolling, it was time to escape. He concentrated and began to shrink and change until he became a shaggy black haired dog. Just as Pettigrew and James had been able to transform, Sirius had mastered the Animagus transformation into the dog that had earned him the nickname "Padfoot". He spent most nights in this form, and it was due to this ability that he had managed to stay sane with the Dementors hovering around. When he was in his Animagus form, the depressing effects of the Dementors were dampened greatly.

He slipped through the loose bar and padded silently down the hallway. He shifted quickly into human form to open the door at the end of the corridor and then changed back to his dog form. After ten minutes of walking and one close call with a guard that was patrolling the bottom floor after the usual shift, he finally reached the open outside of the prison. He dashed along the dock that had been built for ships that came in bearing prisoners, and leapt into the cold North Sea. He had been building up his endurance every night while in his dog form by running laps around the cell, but he knew he would need all of his energy to swim to the shore of Scotland. The only thing in his mind as he swam was that he had to make it for Harry.

AN: As I said, this is the most graphic part of the story. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed the story so far. Please, everyone, keep reviewing. It is great to get feedback on the chapters, to see if there is anything I need to improve.


	3. Chapter 2: Located

Disclaimer: It's JKR's, not mine. All of the characters, settings, and ideas from the books belong to JK Rowling. I have never, and will never profit from these writings. The only things that are mine are the parts of the plot differing from the books, any original characters, and the characterization of Hermione's parents.

AN: Thanks to a review by **Sweetgirl23**, I realized I left out a portion of the story in one of my revisions of Chapter 1: The Search. I have changed it to its correct form. The extra paragraphs are now included in the section where Remus, Hestia, Andromeda, and Kingsley are talking in the room at the Hog's Head Tavern. It deals with some of the results of the revelation of Harry's disappearance.

Chapter 2: Located

_Downtown London – 25 December 1993_

Sirius Black trotted down the streets of London in his Animagus form on his way to King's Cross Station. He had just left Diagon Alley after getting a black market wand in Knockturn Alley from a man who sold wands without the Ministry tracking charms on it. He was planning on following the tracks of the Hogwarts Express to find his way to Hogwarts.

After he had rested for several days from his swim to the mainland after his escape from Azkaban, he had Apparated to Surrey. He found out right away that this was a big mistake. He'd had to flee immediately in his Animagus form when a team of Aurors and Hit Wizards Apparated to the area several minutes later. Apparently, during the years he had been in Azkaban, the Ministry had improved its detection techniques and made them capable of honing in on a single person using a large burst of magic when they were looking for someone in particular rather than just a general area.

From then on he had to travel by foot. He couldn't travel magically, and he also couldn't hitchhike because his picture had already been broadcast on the Muggle news and printed in all of the newspapers, so he couldn't take the risk of someone recognising him.

Sirius had made his way to Little Whinging to locate the Dursleys. When he reached the house he found no sign of Harry. He had snuck into the house the next day when Petunia and Dudley left on a shopping trip, and Dudley, who was the last one out, forgot to lock the door. Sirius had searched the house but found no sign that Harry lived there. In his dog form, he only found one place that had even a remnant of Harry's scent: the cupboard under the stairs. Once inside, he growled deeply when he realised the smell was coming from old dried blood that remained under the wooden baseboard along the bottom of the wall which smelled deeply of chlorine as if someone had been trying to get rid of a lot more blood.

He had gone into a rage and the next thing he knew, he was in the living room and had torn the sofa into pieces in his Animagus form. He took several deep breaths to calm himself and then left the house. Thinking it through, he had guessed that someone had found out about what was happening to Harry and had taken him away from the Dursleys. After several months of locating the houses of people who would have taken Harry in, Sirius still could not find Harry. Giving up on that search, he had decided to go to Hogwarts. If Harry was not staying there with Dumbledore, then at least he might be able to find out where he **was** staying.

After he had purchased a wand in Knockturn Alley, he hid behind a building to change into his Animagus form. As he had padded down the main path through Knockturn, he saw a discarded issue of the Daily Prophet next to a building. He grabbed it up in his mouth and carried it with him. He had followed closely behind a young couple on their way out of Diagon Alley, making it look like he belonged to them so that his presence didn't seem suspicious to anyone.

He broke out of his thoughts as a young street boy brushed past him carrying a battered and torn rucksack on one shoulder. After the boy passed him he smelled a familiar scent mixed in with the myriad other smells that were prevalent and nearly overwhelming for a dog on the streets of London, but he could not place what it was.

Sirius continued walking closer to King's Cross Station, but when he looked at the sky he saw foreboding dark clouds in the distance. It looked like a storm would be coming through in a few hours. He decided he would be better off waiting until tomorrow to begin following the tracks. He would be able to find shelter from the storm easier if he remained in the city.

He went behind a dumpster and changed back into his human form, and then leaned against the building to read the paper. The front page had several stories about the Ministry's efforts to catch him, along with a large full colour Wizarding photograph that had been taken while he was in Azkaban. Sirius turned the page and his heart skipped a beat and he felt like someone had punched him in the gut. The prominent story on the second page was titled:

_**Harry Potter: Is he really still alive? **By Rita Skeeter_

_The Ministry continues to receive accounts from people who claim to have seen Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. Despite the constant supply of sightings, all of those that have been investigated by the Department of Magical Law Enforcement have proven to be made up or mistaken. All of these false sightings are usually filed by people who wish to gain attention, or those who are so hopeful at the prospect of being the ones to find the Boy-Who-Lived that they begin to think they see him everywhere._

_The personal opinion of this reporter is that there is no hope that we will ever find the Boy-Who-Lived, and the discouraging amount of false reports do not make the slim chances any better._

_Harry Potter, the child who defeated You-Know-Who, was placed in the care of his maternal Aunt and Uncle after the death of his parents, James and Lily Potter at the hands of You-Know-Who. He was mistreated by his uncle from the moment he got there, and was eventually left for dead in the streets of London just over seven years ago. Since he was essentially isolate from the Wizarding world, no one knew of his absence until the day that he was supposed to begin Hogwarts. Since then, several detachments of Aurors from the ministry as well as the friends of the Potter family have been searching tirelessly to find him. There have been no new leads for nearly nine months and some at the DMLE are considering cutting down on the number of searchers._

_We recently spoke to Remus Lupin, the Defence Against the Dark Arts Professor this year at Hogwarts. He has been one of those most affected by the disappearance as he was close friends with James and Lily Potter during the years they attended Hogwarts and beyond their graduation. He told us he has been combing London for months before he accepted the position at Hogwarts, and he continues his search every other weekend during the school year. _

_Anyone with credible information or tips on the whereabouts of Harry Potter is asked to contact Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement._

Sirius collapsed to the ground and wept. He began to berate himself over and over in his head as he thought of his decision to go after Pettigrew that night. _'Why did I leave him that night? If I had just stayed I could have taken him in, even if Dumbledore wanted him with the Dursleys. He would never have been hurt by those bastards and he wouldn't have disappeared._

He felt a brief flash of anger when he thought that Remus had not taken Harry in, but it was quickly replaced with embarrassment and guilt for thinking that of his friend. He realised that as a werewolf there would have been no chance for him to get custody. He also figured, because of the years Harry had been missing without anyone knowing about it, that Remus had probably never visited Harry, because of how he felt about his Lycanthropy. However, Sirius wouldn't put it past Dumbledore to have forbid Remus from visiting, possibly even using threats of revealing his condition to the public.

Sirius growled to himself. Now the only thing he cared for was to get his revenge on Pettigrew, and maybe get a few choice words off at Dumbledore, but beyond that, he really saw no other reason to stay alive once he did that if Harry wasn't around. He realised that right now he could really care less if he was killed while he was after Pettigrew.

He slowly pulled himself together, using the Occlumency skills he had learned in Auror School, which had kept him sane while in his human form in Azkaban. Occlumency allowed him to calm his mind and mask his emotions, as well as letting him think clearly about how to get to Pettigrew. Right now what he needed to do was find a good place for shelter from the coming storm.

Transforming back into his Animagus form, he left the paper on the floor of the alley and turned back onto the road he had been traveling on before. As he walked, he once again picked up the familiar scent that he had smelled several minutes before. At first he just ignored it, but something in the back of his mind kept nagging him, telling him that the smell was somehow important. He stood still for several moments, sniffing deeply, trying to figure out what it was. He quickly realised it was the scent of a human, and instantly thought of Lupin, as it was a familiar scent. However, it didn't have the added smell of a member of the canine family, so it couldn't be him. _'It reminds me of James and Lily, but I know I smelled it more recently. Besides, James and Lily are dead, and no one else smelled similar to…' _

He stopped in mid-thought and he felt his heart give a jump again. '_Harry!' _The only one who had a similar scent had been Harry. His mind raced as he realised that this scent was identical to the one he found in the cupboard at the Dursleys. _'That's Harry's scent! Harry's alive! He must have been through here recently because I didn't smell this until… That boy who passed me.' _He hadn't smelled it until the boy brushed past him, and as he thought back he realised the boy had had shaggy black hair, albeit much longer than James ever let his grow. He would never have made the connection if he hadn't read the article about Harry being abandoned in London.

He immediately ran in the direction Harry had gone, following the scent through what seemed like a random path through countless alleys and backstreets. After nearly ten minutes of running, the trail came out onto a larger street, and Sirius caught sight of the boy's back ahead of him. He barked joyfully as he ran toward Harry. As he came closer he saw that he wore tattered and ripped up jeans held up by a rope, and an oversized denim shirt.

He wasn't reacting at all to the barks that escaped Sirius as he approached, which confused him. _'Maybe he's used to having dogs bark at him while he's walking the streets.' _Sirius finally caught up with him and nudged the back of his leg gently with his snout. The black-haired teen jumped at the sudden touch, and then spun around, an open switchblade in his hand so quickly that Sirius didn't even see him take it out of his pocket and open it up. He relaxed when he saw that it was just a dog.

Sirius continued barking as Harry looked at him, hoping to keep his attention. Harry knelt in front of him and slowly reached his hand out toward Sirius. As his face came into view all doubt about this not being Harry was erased.

A lightning bolt shaped scar stood out on his forehead, and his nose and cheekbones looked similar to that of his mother, but the most obvious were the bright and sparkling emerald eyes, identical to those of Lily, shining from behind a pair of glasses with taped up frames and scratched up lenses. Sirius noted several other scars, including a thick one on his right cheek, and a jagged scar that ran from just above his left eyebrow down the side of his face to just below his left cheekbone.

When Sirius sniffed the hand that Harry had extended to him, and then licked it, Harry smiled and began talking softly to him as he searched Sirius' neck for a collar. "Hey there, big fella, what're you doing out 'ere all by yourself? Do you have an owner?"

Sirius slowly shook his head no. Harry laughed and said. "Well, I guess you're a pretty smart dog. Sorry I didn't 'ear you barkin' at me before, but I'm deaf so I can't hear anythin' at all."

Sirius' heart sank at the thought of his godson having to live on the streets without the ability to hear. He took a few steps forward and licked Harry affectionately on the cheek as he wondered if his godson had become deaf as a result of the abuse he received from the Dursleys, or if it had happened on the streets. He figured it had probably occurred in the past few years after Harry had learned to speak, because he did not seem to have any of the speech problems that he knew children born without hearing or those who lost in the first years of their lives had.

Harry laughed as Sirius licked him, and then patted him on the head. "I'm 'eaded off to the place I live, d'you wanna stay with me?"

Sirius barked and jumped up to place his front paws on Harry's chest. "Okay, I guess that's a yes. Now, we need to figure out what I should call you." Harry thought for a minute. "How about Blackie?"

Sirius licked Harry's face in approval of the name, amused at how close his godson had come to his real last name. "Okay, Blackie it is!" Harry said. "We should get going so we can make it to my place before it starts raining."

Sirius followed right beside his godson as they went along the road towards the eastern side of the city. As they walked, Sirius noticed that Harry seemed to be brushing against certain people ask he went past them. Eventually Harry stopped behind a building and pulled five wallets out of his pocket and took the cash out of each before tossing the wallets on the floor. Despite the amount of wallets he had lifted, he only ended up with about ₤20. Sirius looked sadly at Harry, realising that he had probably had to live for several years as pickpocket to survive here on the streets.

Harry notice the look and smiled sadly at Sirius, "I really don't like stealin', but I only do it when I 'ave nothin' to eat." Sirius nuzzled Harry with his snout to show his understanding.

Harry smiled at him and said, "You're a really smart dog, aren't you. There's somethin' different about you from any dog I've seen before. Maybe it's 'cause the colour you glow is different than most dogs. I've only seen your kind of glow on certain kinds of humans before."

This statement shocked Sirius. It sounded as if Harry was describing his Aura. He knew that it was possible to tell Animagi apart from normal animals by the Aura of the wizard who had transformed. Usually the only way to see a person's Aura was to cast a certain spell that lasted for only a few minutes and could only be cast when you were looking at the person, which was what made Invisibility Cloaks so valuable, because the spell could not be used to detect people wearing the cloak.

Was it possible that Harry had the rare ability of Aura Sight? Sirius knew that some of James' ancestors had abilities that had been inherited from the days of the founders. Aura Sight was valued because it did not have the limitation of the spell, so the person could see people that had been Disillusioned or that were using Invisibility Cloaks. The only living person that Sirius knew of with Aura Sight was Alastor Moody, and that was only because he had a magical eyeball.

Harry led him down several more streets until they came to a store. Harry told Sirius to stay outside, and he came back out several minutes later carrying a box of corn flakes and five tins of dog food. "This should take care of the next six days if each of us eats half a tin and some cereal each day." Sirius felt even guiltier for going after Pettigrew that day when he realised Harry seemed to be used to relying on half a tin of dog food for his meals every day.

They walked for about 15 more minutes before Harry slowed down and stopped in front of an abandoned apartment building. They went around the back of the building and walked up a board that went one of the ground floor patios. They went through the glass patio door and came into a large room that had probably served as the dining room.

"Well, 'ere's my 'ome. This is the safest part of the building, 'cause most of the rest 'as water damage so the floors and ceilings are rottin' away."

Harry had an old army cot set up on one side of the room with several blankets and a torn up sleeping bag on top of it. Most of the other side of the room had a pile of cans that it looked like Harry was saving, and a pile of salvaged clothes and a stack of filled bottles of water. Near his cot was an area where it looked like he kept more personal belongings including a large stack of books and well-worn notebooks, and a small desk with paper, pens and other miscellaneous items that are often found in an office. On the other side of the cot was a box half filled with candles and several boxes of matches.

As Sirius was looking around the room, Harry had taken two bowls out and used a manual tin-opener to open up a tin of dog food. Sirius trotted over to him as he scooped out half into each bowl, and poured some corn flakes in and stirred it up. He placed a bowl on the floor in front of Sirius and began to eat from his own. Sirius lowered his head to the bowl and began to eat. He looked out the patio door and saw that it had begun to rain already.

He and Harry finished at around the same time and Harry took both bowls outside to rinse them in the rain. He came back in and set them down to dry. Harry walked over to the pile of books and grabbed three books and brought them over to his cot where he sat down to read.

He patted the mattress next to him and said. "You can sit up 'ere with me if you want to, Blackie." Sirius walked over to the bed and sprang up, lying next to Harry. He looked to the side at the book Harry was reading. He was on the last several pages, and what Sirius could see of it, it seemed familiar. He waited for Harry to finish it, so he could find out what it was. He watched as Harry's eyes flicked across the page. He would stop every few minutes at a word he had never encountered before, and pick up one of the other books he had brought over. Sirius realised it was a large dictionary, the type normally only found in libraries. Harry would search for the word, read the definition several times, and then use the pronunciation key to speak the word aloud several times.

Sirius was surprised that Harry could read so fast, in fact that he could read at all, and he silently thanked whoever it was that took the time to teach him to read, because he noticed that Harry seemed more relaxed and happy when he was reading. He guessed that whoever had taught him had done it before and after he had become deaf, showing him how to use the pronunciation key and using words that he already knew to help him pronounce and speak the word as if he had heard it before coming deaf.

Ten minutes later, Harry closed the book with a slight smile on his face and placed it to the side, allowing Sirius a glimpse at the cover. '_Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens_' it read. Sirius was surprised that Harry was reading a Dickens book at his age. Sirius had read it once, but that had been shortly after graduation from Hogwarts, and Lily had recommended the book to him. He then realised one of the reasons Harry might have enjoyed reading it. The main character was an orphan living on the streets. Harry probably had had some of the same experiences as Oliver did. It had a nice ending, with Oliver ending up living with an old friend of his father's who had helped him out, managing to obtain half of Oliver's inheritance.

Sirius' heart turned at how happy Harry seemed at the ending, he decided he would do his best to make things play out in the same way for Harry. Harry looked over to see Sirius looking at him and the book he had just finished reading, and as if reading his mind said, "I 'ope something like that 'appens for me someday." Then he looked embarrassed, realising a dog would not have read a book before. "Sorry, you just seem so much like a 'uman instead of a dog, I keep forgettin' you probably 'ave no idea what I'm talkin' about."

Harry picked up his third book and began to read it. Sirius nearly snorted aloud, or at least as well as a dog would be able to snort, when he saw Harry was reading _Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy_. Sirius himself had read it and found it to be one of the most hilarious books he had ever read.

He and Harry sat in companionable silence for the next several hours as Harry read and Sirius watched him. Harry eventually had to get out a candle to have enough light to read by. Finally, as rain began to die down at around ten at night, Harry did something else that shocked Sirius he picked up one of the books and held it out in front of him on his palms, and stared at it. His brows furrowed in concentration, and suddenly the book rose from his hands. He flicked his eyes to the desk and the book levitated over to it and settled down on it, and Harry repeated this with the rest of the books. Sirius stared in shock at Harry as he watched him do wandless magic without any difficulty.

Harry looked over at him after the last book settled on the desk and saw Sirius staring at him. "Didya like that, Blackie? I've been practicing that for a long time since I found out I could do it."

Sirius slowly shook off his amazement and realized that Harry had been doing magic for years and didn't seem to realize it. It had apparently been weak enough that it was masked by the magical background signals given off throughout central London, because otherwise Dumbledore or the Ministry would have detected him.

Harry got out a large blanket and folded it up next to the cot for Sirius to lie on. He then pulled off his shoes, tossed them to the side, and blew out the candle before getting comfortable on the bed and pulling the sleeping bag tightly around himself.

Nearly an hour later, as Sirius was finally drifting off to sleep, Harry began whimpering and twitching in his sleep. The twitching became more pronounced and the entire cot began to tremble. He screamed, flinching his face away from something in his dream. Sirius began to get up from his spot beside the cot when Harry began to speak in his sleep. "No, please, no, not that Uncle Vernon, I'll do any chores you want, just don't do that to me again." He begged, sobbing in his sleep.

Sirius leapt onto the bed and began nudging Harry's face with his snout, eventually forcefully as the nightmare continued. Finally Harry woke up with a shout. Sirius was confused when he saw Harry checking around his body with trembling hands as if to make sure he had all of his clothing on. He ran his hands over the back of his trousers several times before seeming to become fully awake. He finally realised Sirius was on the bed with his nose next to Harry's face.

Harry threw his arms around a stunned Sirius, sobbing into his fur. "I-it was r-really just a dream!" He gasped out. "I don't live there anymore. He w-won't be able to ever do i-it to me again."

Sirius stayed still, allowing Harry to cry against him as he pondered the dream that Harry had just had. He knew that Dursley had beat Harry, at least to the point that he had bled, but what he had heard Harry saying, and how Harry had acted with his clothing when he woke up, caused him to feel like a pit was forming in his stomach. He could only think of a few things that Harry could have been dreaming about his uncle doing to him that caused him to make sure his trousers were intact, and all of them made Sirius sick to his stomach. If he found out that Dursley had sexually abused Harry, nothing would be able to protect him from Sirius.

As Harry calmed down, Sirius' rational mind kicked in, and he realised he was thinking the exact same way he had when he had gone after Pettigrew. _'No.'_ He thought. _'I won't do that to Harry again. It's my fault if anything like that happened to him with them, and I won't allow him to be hurt again because of my blind anger.'_

Harry's sobs subsided and he pulled back, looking at Sirius. "Sorry I got your fur all soaked. I usually only 'ave the really bad dreams like that one about once a month."

Sirius licked his tear-stained face, and Harry's trembling stopped completely as he lay weakly against his pillow. Sirius moved forward, lying down next to Harry, allowing him to place his arms around his neck in a hug. They stayed like that, and eventually Harry drifted off to a less restless sleep.

He swore to himself then that he would stay with Harry from now on and wouldn't go out of his way to go after Pettigrew. He decided that he had to find some way to contact Remus in the next few weeks so that he could find Harry and he wouldn't have to live like this anymore.

_London – Early Morning – 31 December, 1993_

Sirius sat on the sidewalk across the street from the Hackney Public Library as he waited for Harry to emerge from the building. Over the past week he had found that Harry went to the library every other day, and that he had found him when he was on his way back from one of the larger libraries in central London. He went to the local one here in the Hackney area of London more frequently. He let Sirius come along every trip, and wait outside for several hours while Harry read inside the library. He had no address, and thus no way to check out books, so he read them at the library.

Sirius was thinking deeply about something that had happened earlier in the morning. It had been a little after they woke up, and Harry had come back from a short walk with a discarded newspaper. After reading the front page he had said "All they 'ave to talk about these days is this Sirius Black bloke who escaped from prison." He had set the paper down and Sirius could see his picture plastered on the lower section of the front page. "They say that he murdered a bunch of people in the middle of the street. I wonder if he really did it or not."

Sirius has looked up, surprised by this. Harry seemed to notice the look and had said. "They say in 'ere that he blew up some sort bomb or somethin', but if he did that while he was in the middle of the street, wouldn't 'e 'ave gotten 'imself blown up too? I've read a few books about people that got put in jail or killed for somethin' and then the police eventually found out they didn't do what they were accused of. For some reason, I don't think he actually did it. Somethin' about their story doesn't make sense."

Sirius had been extremely happy on the way to the library after what Harry had said. Now he was trying to decide when he should reveal his true form to Harry. Now that he knew Harry wouldn't be that likely to turn him in, and more likely to hear him out, he decided that he would transform in front of Harry and tell him about himself and the fact that Harry was a wizard. Then they could figure out a way to contact Remus. He finally decided on revealing himself tomorrow.

The book levitation was the only magic Sirius had seen Harry use so far, although he wouldn't be surprised if it played a role in his ability to pickpocket so easily, possibly through some unconscious use of a Summoning charm.

He glanced up when the front door of the library opened to see Harry come out and make his way across the street to Sirius. He patted Sirius on the head when he reached him and said, "Hey, Blackie. You've been such a good boy to wait for me when I go to the library. C'mon, I'm gonna get us a treat."

They walked several blocks and came to a small ice cream shop. Harry went inside and got a scoop of vanilla ice cream with the last of the money he had taken the week before. He sat with Sirius on the sidewalk and quickly devoured half of it before giving Sirius the other half. When they had finished they began walking back to their place. As they walked Harry seemed to be deep in thought about something. Because of this, they only realised at the last minute that when they turned down a side street, several people were there, waiting for them.

"Well, well, well. It's the crazy little deaf freak. And look, he's got himself a doggy." Said a large, menacing boy who was wearing a dark red shirt and black pants and holding a metal pipe. He and four others wearing the same clothing stood in the alley, all of them holding an assortment of makeshift weapons. Harry turned quickly, only to find four more teens had come into the alley behind them.

The leader who had spoken was named Stephen. Harry had bested him in a fight several years ago when they had been attacking a young girl. Since then, Stephen had been looking for revenge, and had apparently been planning this for quite a while to be able to know the streets Harry usually used.

"Blackie, this is going to be dangerous. I want you to run home when you can." Harry said to Sirius, his eyes never leaving the group. Sirius shook his head, planning to help Harry against these teens, even if he had to transform and use magic. "Why don't you blokes just fuck off and leave us alone so you don't get yourselves beat up like Stevie 'ere did?"

Suddenly one of the younger boys charged forward with a large piece of metal chain, and the rest quickly followed him. Harry had his switchblade out in an instant along with a small throwing knife in his left hand. He swung his hand backwards, releasing the knife and letting it stab into the chest of the boy who had led the charge. The boy staggered back, staring in shock at the knife that was protruding from his chest. As Sirius leapt onto another boy, biting his weapon arm and causing him to drop a baseball bat, the other boys attacked Harry at the same time. Sirius had never seen anyone move as fast as Harry. He was weaving in and out of the attacks, slashing each attacker with his switchblade, and only receiving glancing blows from the attackers.

He could only dodge for so long before someone got a good hit in. Stephen managed to hit him across the back with his metal pipe, stunning him long enough to let the others pin him down. As Harry struggled, Stephen raised the pipe for what would likely be a fatal blow. Suddenly the air around Harry glowed red, and a circular blast of red energy shot out of his body in all directions. When it faded, every one of the gang members was knocked out. Harry stood up; looking shocked at what had happened. Sirius realised he had just done some accidental magic in the form of a stunning spell, although it was one of the largest ones he had ever seen. He knew that it had likely been large enough to allow detection by either Dumbledore or the Ministry, so he would have to transform earlier than he had planned so he could explain to Harry about himself before anyone else told him he was a murderer.

Harry snapped from his daze and looked over to Sirius. "That was really weird, Blackie. Let's get out of 'ere before they wake up." He pulled his throwing knife out of the now unconscious teen that had led the attack, and wiped off the blood on the teen's shirt. Within ten minutes they were back at the apartment, with Harry seated on his cot looking confused. "What the bloody 'ell did I jus' do?" He muttered.

Harry looked up to see Blackie staring at him. To his shock, he began to grow larger and less furry, and began to develop human-like features. He switched from being on all fours to standing on two legs. Finally, his dog features disappeared completely and were replaced by a very familiar human face. "Hello, Harry, I'm Sirius Black."

_Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts Castle – 31 December, 1993_

Albus Dumbledore was at his desk, preparing his speech for the Return Feast which would occur on Sunday when all of the students came back from winter holiday. His head snapped up sharply when he heard a loud pinging coming from one of the many instruments he kept around his office. His eyes went to a round sphere that was flashing with a yellow and indigo light. He sprang out of his chair and sprinted to the instrument. Picking up the instrument, he set it into a small holder, which caused it to project an image and words in the air above it.

_**Magical Signature Detected**_

_**Subject: Harry James Potter**_

_**Magic Detected: Accidental Stunning Spell**_

The image shown was a map with a blinking light showing the location of the magical signature. A smiling Dumbledore looked closely at the map and realised it was a close-up of the area of London near Hackney, called the East End. His smile diminished when he remembered the area was not one of the best of London; in fact it was one of the poorest areas close to Downtown London. However, he had already suspected that Harry wasn't living in the best of conditions.

He practically skipped over to his fireplace and got out some Floo powder and tossed it in the flames. He stuck his head in and set the Floo call to Deputy Headmistress McGonagall's office. When she replied, he said "Minerva, please come to my office immediately. I have some rather good news and I need your help with something." He thought for a moment and then added. "Please ask Emma to come as well."

After she said she would be there in a few minutes, he cut off the call and went back over to the projection that hung in the air. "Hang on, Harry, my poor boy, we are coming to help you. I did a terrible thing to you, and now I must try my hardest to make it up to you." He said softly, while thinking that he would never really be able to do so, before he went to the Floo again to make a call to Auror Hestia Jones.

AN: Well, we finally get to see Harry and discover his disability.

This chapter has me caught up to my posting on ficwad, which I began posting on first. I have just started working on the next chapter, and I expect it to be done and edited within the next two weeks, and it should be posted two weeks from today.

Thank you everyone for your reviews, they are always helpful.


	4. Chapter 3: Found

Disclaimer: It's JKR's, not mine. All of the characters, settings, and ideas from the books belong to JK Rowling. I have never, and will never profit from these writings. The only things that are mine are the parts of the plot differing from the books, any original characters, and the characterization of Hermione's parents.

AN: Sorry about the long wait. This chapter is the longest yet, and future chapters will be between the length of this chapter and chapter one (some might even get longer). I've corrected an error with denoting the sign language. Originally I had a bracket symbol, but it doesn't show up here, so now it is in italics and single quotes.

Chapter 3: Found

_Harry's Apartment, London – Friday, 31 December, 1993_

"Hello, Harry, I'm Sirius Black."

As soon as those words were uttered, Harry had his switchblade out and ready to use. His eyes had bulged out and his jaw had dropped when he saw his dog transform into a wanted criminal directly in front of him, but that did not delay his reactions. "What the bloody 'ell are you? 'ow'd you do that? What'd you do with Blackie?" He asked rapidly.

"Calm down, Harry, I didn't do anything with Blackie, because I am Blackie. As to what I am, I'm a wizard, just like you." Sirius said, holding his hands out palm up to show Harry he didn't have anything that could harm him. He had found out during the last week that Harry could read lips pretty well and know the basics of what a person was saying as long as they didn't talk too fast.

"What sort of rubbish are you talkin' about? A wizard? You been readin' too many fantasy stories?"

"Harry, please sit down and I will explain everything to you. I'm not going to hurt you. I want to help you. Could I use one of your notebooks to write down what I have to say, so you don't have to try to read my lips?"

Harry considered his choices for a minute before he slowly sat down, nodding to Sirius, keeping his hold on the knife and never taking his eyes off him. Sirius took the beat-up chair that sat next to the large stack of books, and sat down on it in front of Harry after he grabbed a notebook and a pencil. He wrote out his words for Harry while continuing to speak.

"Harry, first of all, you have to understand that there is such a thing as a wizard, and wizards are able to use magic. Watch." He slowly pulled out his wand, which Harry looked at in confusion. "_Wingardium Leviosa." _He incanted softly, and several of Harry's books rose up into the air off their stacks and floated over to Harry. Harry looked at the books in shock, realizing that he had been doing something similar for years, before looking back at Sirius. "You are also a wizard, Harry. What happened today with that gang of boys was magic. The spell that knocked them out was called a Stunner."

"But, I didn't use one of those stick thingies you've got there." Harry protested, but he hoped that what he was being told was true. He had read many stories containing witches and wizards, and sometimes dreamed about what it would be like if they really existed.

"What you did was accidental magic. It was triggered when you were in danger. This 'stick thingie' is called a magic wand, and it helps wizards focus their magic. What you do every day, levitating the books, is without using a wand, which is something that many witches and wizards cannot do."

Sirius looked closely at Harry who seemed to be accepting the idea much more readily than he had hoped he would. Harry warily nodded to Sirius and said, "I've 'ad other strange things happen to me sometimes. When I was little, my Aunt cut my 'air really short, she said I was a freak 'cause my 'air wouldn't stay combed. The next day my 'air was back to normal, and I got in big trouble 'cause of that. A few times 'ere on the streets it seemed like wounds I got 'ealed faster than normal. I found out I could do the book thing a few years ago and spent a lot of time getting' better at it. A few times I've tel'ported if I really needed to get somewhere fast."

"A lot of that would be accidental magic." Sirius stated.

"So, what d'you want with me?"

"Well Harry, first of all, I want to tell you that I didn't kill anyone. I was framed for murder, like you were thinking this morning. I'll explain that to you later. First I have to tell you that I'm your godfather."

"What? I don't even know you, 'ow could you be my godfather?"

"I'm getting to that. I was a very close friend to your parents, Harry, and they asked me to be your godfather, but since I was thrown in prison, I couldn't take care of you."

"Y'knew my parents?" Harry asked excitedly. "Is that why you're livin' on the street?"

"What? What are you talking about, Harry?"

"Well I figured if y'knew my parents, you lived on the streets like them, 'specially if you were a good friend."

"Harry, your parents didn't live on the streets. They were two of the best wizards and witches of my time, and they were actually one of the richest families in the Wizard world, and you have inherited that money."

"Then… then why'd I get put with the Dursleys and 'ave to work for them, if I'm rich. And why'd they tell me my dad was a bum and my mum was a… a?" He broke off, not wanting to say the vile things that his uncle had called her.

"I don't know, Harry, but I intend to find out why you were placed with those bastards. They said those things to you to make you feel worthless, but they're wrong, you aren't, and your parents didn't live like that." Sirius said. "I'm going to make sure you get off the streets and into someplace safer. If my name gets cleared, I'd like for you to live with me, and we'll see if we can't do even better than Oliver Twist."

Harry smiled widely at that and then said, "I'd like that but 'ow will you clear your name, an' 'ow will you get me off the streets?"

"Well, that magic you did was probably strong enough to get detected by someone in the Wizard world, so we should be expecting a visit from someone who has been looking for you within an hour." He pulled out an old newspaper from his pocket and handed it to Harry. "This is a magical newspaper. See how all of the pictures move? Look closely at the animal that the shortest redheaded boy is holding."

"I see it. It's a rat. What's so special 'bout this?"

"Harry, your parents were killed by an evil wizard. They had been protected by a spell, and only one person could give away the information of where they were. The man who knew was one of our friends named Peter Pettigrew. When your parents were killed, I knew Pettigrew had betrayed them, so I went after him. When I confronted him he cast a spell which blew up the street and killed a bunch of people. He cut off his finger and ran away, making people think I had killed him, leaving only a finger, and the other people. Your father, Pettigrew, and I, had the ability to change into animals. I can become a dog, your father could become a stag, and Pettigrew could become a rat. When something happens to a wizard like the loss of a finger or arm or something, the same thing happens to their animal form. Look closely at the front paw of the rat in the picture."

Harry held the paper up to the light and squinted. "He's missin' a toe on one paw!" Harry gasped. "So this is this Pett'grew person who got my parents killed?"

Sirius nodded. "When I saw that picture while I was in prison, I realised I had a chance to clear my name if I escaped and captured him. While I was headed toward the place he is, I saw this article." He pulled out another article, the one he had read a week ago. Harry read it with a shocked expression when he saw his name and a picture of himself, along with the fact that people were searching for him, including another friend of his parents. "D'you know this Remus Lupin?"

"Yes, Harry, he was one of my best friends. Your father and Remus and I were always a lot closer to each other than Pettigrew was to us. They've been searching for you, and I think they'll find you now with that bit of magic you did out there."

"Should I let them find me? Or should we wait 'til you get your name cleared?" Harry asked.

"It would be best if you let them find you. They'll likely take you to a Wizarding school, which is where Pettigrew is. If they bring me with you, it'll be much easier to capture him. Besides, I don't want you to have to live like this any longer."

Harry nodded thoughtfully. He thought carefully over everything Sirius had told him, and believed that he wasn't lying about anything. Part of his belief was because of the fact that Sirius had been living with him the past week or so, and had done nothing to harm him, in fact, he had comforted him after one of his bad nightmares. He had also risked his life in the fight with the boys to attack some of them. The rest was just his gut feeling that Sirius was truly trying to help him, and was talking about ways to get him off the streets.

As he thought about what he had been told, a memory came to him. During his time with the Dursleys he would occasionally have dreams about people who he believed were his parents, mainly because the man looked very similar to him, and the woman in the dreams had the same color eyes that he had. After being dumped in London, the dreams came less and less often, and it had been nearly a year since he last had one. The dreams sometimes contained other people, including one that he now realized was a younger version of Sirius.

Harry looked up at Sirius in shock. "You-you're the 'uman-dog I used t'dream about! I remember someone sayin' somethin' about a Pad foot or somethin' like that."

Sirius looked at him in surprise. "Yes, my nickname among my closest friends, including your father, was Padfoot. Harry, I don't think it was just dreams, it had to be some unconscious memories, if you could know my nickname like that."

Harry nodded. "That's what I thought. I used t'have them a lot at the Dursley's, mainly about my mum and dad." He went quiet again, remembering how good he felt after he had one of those dreams.

Sirius nudged his hand several minutes later to break him from his thoughts and then said shakily, "When I saw that article and thought you might be dead, I-I didn't care what happened to me. You were one of the only reasons to break out of prison. Somehow, you just happened to go past me before I read the article, and when I realised you were either dead or somewhere in London, I recognised your scent and followed you."

"You… you really broke out of prison for me? Why? I'm just a buggered-up deaf street kid. I'm nothin' important."

Sirius felt tears come to his eyes at the way Harry described himself. "Harry, besides the fact that I promised your parents to take care of you, I've loved you pretty much as a son since you were born. Right now you are the most important thing in the world to me, and I hate to see you living like this."

"I-I'm that important to you?" Harry's eyes were tearing up, and Sirius slowly moved forward to give him a hug, which, as he had expected, Harry stiffened at the contact. He pulled back and spoke to Harry at a distance where Harry could see his mouth to read his lips. "Yes, Harry, you are very important to me, and you always will be. Now, I need you to do something for me. Remus knows what I look like, and he still believes I killed those people. I need you to cast a spell that I'll show you, to change the colour of the fur of my dog form. With that, and by trying to stay out of his way, I don't think he'll recognise me."

"O-okay, I'll try it, but I prob'ly won't be able to."

"No Harry, you have to believe that you can. One of the things that lets wizards like us do spells is the belief that it is possible." He went over to notebook again and continued writing for Harry. "The words of the spell are _Mutare Coloris_." Sirius said as he wrote out a pronunciation of the words for Harry. "While you are saying the incantation and pointing the wand at me, you have to imagine my fur being a different colour."

He handed Harry the paper, and listened to him pronounce the spell, making a few changes to how he wrote it out for Harry, until he could speak it correctly. "Okay Harry, time for you to do your first spell using a wand." He swiftly transformed into his Animagus form and waited for Harry.

Harry picked up his wand, looking nervous, as he hoped that he wouldn't mess up and somehow change Sirius into a frog or something. He pointed the wand at Sirius and said, "_Mutare Coloris."_ He felt somewhat silly saying the words aloud, but then a flash of light shot out of the wand and hit Sirius. Harry hadn't been expecting this and jumped back. When the light cleared, Harry couldn't help but laugh. The entire right half of Sirius had become white, while his left half retained its original black fur.

Sirius looked back at himself and realised that Harry's concentration had been broken, making an incomplete transformation. Knowing what to expect now, Harry held the wand more confidently and performed the spell again but merely thought the words in his head rather than speaking them aloud, this time changing all of Sirius' fur from black to white. "It worked that time." Harry said.

Sirius changed back to his human form. Harry had expected his hair to turn white, but it was still black. "'ow come your 'air's black now?"

"Oh, the spell only works on one magical signature, and my Animagus form is just different enough that it doesn't affect my human form. That spell will wear off in about three days so you'll need to keep using it on me whenever it starts to fade."

"When d'you think the wizards you were talkin' about will come?" Harry asked him.

"I don't think it should take more than an hour for them to come. If they don't come today, that means the magic you did wasn't strong enough to show up on their detectors. If that happens I'll figure out a way to send an anonymous tip to Remus about where you are living. For now we'll just have to wait. I'll change back into my dog form in case they come in without any warning." Sirius said.

"Um, what should I call you now? Or should I still call you Blackie?" Harry asked.

"That's fine, people will probably be amused that you named a white dog Blackie. I was actually quite amused that you came up with a name so close to my real last name."

His demeanour turned serious when he thought about something he wanted to know. Picking up the paper again, he began writing and talking. "Harry, after I escaped I went to the Dursley home where I had heard you had been placed with. I know some of what they did to you, because I could smell your blood in that cupboard. I know it's probably a hard thing to think about, but I need to know if they did anything else to you besides beating you up. I heard your dream a few nights ago, and it made me think they did."

Harry's face lost its colour as he read what Sirius was asking him, and then he looked up at Sirius with a guarded expression on his face. "Y-yes, my u-uncle did other things to me." Harry said shakily.

"Okay Harry, you don't have to tell me anything else, I'm pretty sure I know what happened." He paused and said, "I'm so sorry Harry. I was stupid and blind with anger and that caused you to be put with them. I'll work for the rest of my life to try to make it up to you, even though it will never be enough."

After he knew that Sirius knew what had happened to him, and wasn't running away in disgust or reacting in any similar way like Harry had thought he might, and was in fact apologizing for something Harry thought was his own fault, his guarded expression collapsed and tears leaked from his eyes which he furiously brushed away before he leaned forward and let Sirius hug him tightly. Finally, for the first time since Amy, the woman who had taken him in and taught him everything he knew, had died a few years ago, he felt loved by someone.

Harry pulled back several minutes later, feeling much lighter, and said, "Thanks, Sirius. I think it'll be nice 'aving a godfather that cares about me."

Sirius smiled broadly when Harry called him his godfather. "You're welcome, Harry. I'll be there for you whenever you want to talk about something. Now, I'd better get changed before someone comes looking for you."

With that, Sirius changed to his now-white Animagus form, and jumped up onto Harry's cot to curl up next to him, while Harry took out one of his books and settled in to read, feeling like for once, things in his life were going great. He had found out he had a godfather who wanted to help him get off the street and didn't care about his past, that he could use magic in ways greater than what he had done before, and that he had a good chance of leaving the streets behind if the wizards came for him today.

_Outside the Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts Castle – 31 December, 1993_

Minerva McGonagall was a little miffed that Albus had interrupted her work on finalising her lesson plan for Monday's Transfiguration class – the first of the new term, but she knew he would only interrupt her work for something important, and if he was as happy as he seemed over the Floo call, it was likely some sort of good news.

Walking beside her on their way to the Headmaster's office, was a tall woman with grey eyes and long bushy-brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. Minerva had become rather close friends with Emma Granger in the short time she had been teaching at Hogwarts, even with Emma being over thirty years her junior.

The Muggle Studies professor had retired the previous year, and when Albus offered the position to Tom and Emma Granger, the Muggle parents of Minerva's brightest student, Hermione Granger, Emma had jumped at the opportunity. Emma had long had a dream of becoming a teacher, but she put that aside when she fell in love with Tom Granger, and joined him in dental school, and eventually ran a practice with him. Tom had decided against taking the position, and remained in London to run the dental practice, although he had to find a new oral surgeon with Emma gone, as Emma had taken up oral surgery while Tom had studied general dentistry. Emma and Hermione often took every other weekend off to Portkey to their house to spend the weekend with Tom.

From what Minerva gathered from her many conversations with Emma, Tom had not been very supportive of Hermione going to Hogwarts. In fact, it sounded like he wasn't very fond of even the idea of witches and wizards existing, something Emma believed was from his extremely strict Catholic upbringing and family that abhorred anything to do with witchcraft and the supernatural, and that, she believed, was the reason he had turned the offer down. Emma's dream of teaching, the opportunity to be near her daughter all year, and the chance to learn about and become involved in Hermione's world had sealed the deal for her, resulting in several prolonged arguments with her husband, but eventually ending with her acceptance of the job.

She and Minerva had grown to be good friends in the past six months. One of the most enjoyable things about their friendship, was that almost every time they had a conversation, one of them would learn something new, either about the Muggle world, or the Wizarding world.

Minerva and Emma reached to corridor outside of Albus' office. "Sherbet lemon." Minerva said to the gargoyles guarding the door to the office. She noted to herself that it was the second time in the last year he had chosen that as the password. The gargoyles slid aside to allow the two women entrance.

They rode up the spiral stone staircase, and as Minerva reached out to lift the griffin-shaped brass knocker on the door to the office, a voice from inside called, "Come in please, Minerva, Emma."

Minerva shook her head in exasperation. Somehow Albus always knew when someone was just outside his office, and she was determined to figure out how he did it someday.

They entered the large circular room to see Dumbledore seated behind his desk, and the black-haired Auror Hestia Jones seated in one of the chairs. "Please have a seat." He said, gesturing at two seats in front of his desk. "Sherbet Lemon?" He offered, to which he was turned down by Emma and Minerva. He retrieved a sherbet lemon for himself and popped it into his mouth.

He was silent for several moments, sucking on the candy. "I am sure you three are wondering why I called you up here. I have some rather good news that I would like to share with you, and I would also like to ask you a favour."

"Of course Albus. Now, what is this good news that you seem so excited about?" Minerva asked.

"I have finally located young Harry." He said.

All three women gasped. Hestia stammered, "Wh-what? Really? Are you certain that you've found him this time?"

"Yes, Hestia, I am absolutely certain. A few minutes before I called you on the Floo, Harry performed a bit of accidental magic. I believe it was a large-scale stunning spell. It was a large enough burst of magic that my instruments attuned to Harry were able to detect it and pinpoint the exact street the magic was performed on. Once it found that, it was able to focus in on the street and follow the fainter traces of his magical signature, and I have found what appears to be his home. Sadly it seems to be in a poor and rundown section of London, but that is rather what I expected."

"Have you gone to look for him, Albus? We should get him immediately before his trail runs cold again." Minerva asked.

"No, I have not gone to get him yet, and now that we know where he is, we can follow his magical signature, even if we were to go tomorrow. That is why I have called the two of you to my office. I would like Emma and Hestia, to be the ones that contact and retrieve Harry."

"What about me, Albus?" Minerva asked.

"Minerva, I would like you to begin contact the members of the Order. I believe it would be good if Remus was the first to know that we have located Harry. You can use the Floo here in my office, and if you cannot contact some, you can use Fawkes here to deliver a letter. Please tell them that I would like to hold a meeting tomorrow morning here in the Great Hall." Albus said, and Minerva nodded in acceptance.

"Are you sure you really want me to go along, Albus? I mean I only know of him what everyone has told me and…" Emma was saying when Dumbledore cut her off.

"Yes, Emma, I am sure. You are from the Muggle world, and will be able to find your way around London the best. You also have better knowledge than we do of the things that Harry might have gone through on the streets. He will probably be able to relate more to you, so I ask that after we find him, you spend time with him and help him through his problems. Hestia will be able to tell him everything he needs to know about the Wizarding world, and she also will be able to tell him about his parents, who I think he will be delighted to learn more about. And of course you both know my reasoning behind the ones who contact him being female."

Emma nodded, thinking of how a few weeks after she had come to the school, she had learned everything about what had happened to Harry Potter, the Wizarding world's great hero, from Minerva and the other professors who were members of the Order of the Phoenix.

"Of course Albus, I will do my best to help him. I'll probably talk to a friend of mine who is a psychologist for children and adolescents about what exactly to do and what would help him the best." Emma paused in thought for a moment and then asked. "Albus, may I make a suggestion?

"Certainly," Albus replied, his eyes containing their normal twinkle.

"I think it would be good if we brought Hermione with us. It might make the whole magic thing seem more plausible if he sees someone his age use magic. It would also be a good idea to make sure he has friends to support him when he comes to the school." Emma said.

"Ah, that is a most excellent idea, Emma, and I am sure Hermione would be delighted to have a chance to make another friend. If she does become friends with him, he would also gain the friendship of the girls she met this last year. Hestia, I will make a Portkey Harry's location. Emma, if you would, retrieve Hermione. Also, you and Hestia should change clothing into something more suitable for Muggle London."

Emma and Hestia nodded to him before they stood from their seats and made their way out of the office. Hestia had been to the castle rather often on Auror and Order business, and she and Emma developed a tentative friendship with each other. Hestia took a short Portkey trip home to change into comfortable street clothes while Emma headed to her quarters.

_Professor Granger's Quarters, Hogwarts Castle – 31 December, 1993_

Emma Granger looked on in amusement as her daughter practically bounced around the room, picking out Muggle clothing. She knew Hermione was very excited to be one of the first people to contact Harry Potter and bring him into the Wizarding world. As she was pulling on her clothes, Hermione was chattering excitedly about everything she had read about him in **_Modern Magical History_** and **_Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century_**. When she had first heard about the boy who had saved the Wizarding world from one of the most powerful evil wizards alive, she had been intrigued and had looked into every published book that had something about him, and now knew everything written about his life.

Emma and Hermione had come back to the castle two days ago after spending the winter holiday with Tom. She had let Hermione choose between staying at home or returning to Hogwarts early with her, but since Tom had had to get back to the practice after Boxing Day, Hermione would have been alone at the house most of the time, so she had chosen to come to Hogwarts with Emma.

After listening to her daughter for a few more minutes, Emma sighed. "Hermione? I need to talk to you about something before we go."

Hermione, who was pulling on a pair of trainers, looked up. "Okay Mum, what is it that you want to talk about?"

Emma sat down on the bed next to her daughter as she finished lacing up her trainers. "Hermione, I know that you've read all about Harry Potter in your books, but I want to make sure you know that the boy we see today won't be the same Harry Potter that you're probably imagining. Some things happened to him that were not included in any books."

Hermione looked aghast that people would deliberately leave things out of books. Emma chuckled at her daughter's expression before her own became serious. "They didn't put it in the books because the Ministry would not allow them to. The books all tell about how Harry was abandoned by his aunt and uncle when he was almost six, right?" Hermione nodded.

"Well, what they don't say is that Harry was very badly abused by them before they abandoned him."

Hermione looked saddened by this and then said,"I knew his relatives didn't like him because they abandoned him and I guess I sort of suspected that they might have beaten him while he lived there."

"Honey, while they did beat him rather severely, it was a lot worse than just beatings."

"Worse, what would be worse than that?" Hermione asked, looking confused because she couldn't think of anything more horrible than relatives who were supposed to care for you actually beat you and abandon you.

Emma sighed. "Well, do you remember the little talk we had this summer?"

Hermione blushed as she remembered how after she had had her first period around February of her second year, her mum had sat down with her and gave her "The Talk". She had heard some horror stories told by third years about their parents giving them the talk, but she doubted that any had had such a detailed conversation about it. She and her mum had that most in common: they wanted to learn everything they could about a subject they were interested in or something that was brought up in a conversation.

"Er, yes mum, but what does that have to with… oh… OH!" Hermione exclaimed as her face paled, her hand moved to her mouth, and her eyes filled with unshed tears. "Y-you mean his aunt and uncle…?" She asked, trailing off and unable to complete the question.

Emma nodded and wrapped her arms around her daughter's shoulder. "Yes, honey, it was his uncle that did it. That sick man started when Harry was five and continued doing it until they abandoned him almost a year later. That will have had a large effect on Harry, much more than just living on the streets. No one knows how he will react to adult males, so that's why Hestia, you and I are going. He might not have any problem with males, he might become afraid when alone with a male, or he might just fear people that remind him of his uncle, we just don't know. Now, I expect you to be on your best behaviour when we meet Harry, and I think it would be good for him if you befriend him. He will need all of the support he can get, both for any emotional issues and to help him deal with all of the school work he'll have to do and the things he has to learn to catch up to the other Third Years."

Hermione slowly looked up at her mother, her excitement from before clearly gone from her face. "Do you really think he'll want to be friends with me when he gets to know me?" She asked in a small voice.

Emma choked down a sob as she gathered Hermione into a tight hug. She hated what other kids at Hogwarts and her elementary school had done to cause Hermione to feel like this about herself. This was the second time since she started Hogwarts that she had seen her daughter act like this, as if she didn't think someone would like her once they got to know her, the other time when she met two girls who were now her friends. When Emma took her teaching position, she put a stop to all the teasing and tormenting of her daughter whenever she saw it, but she had suspected it was still going on in the privacy of Gryffindor house, and she realised that she had been right.

"Oh, honey, of course he'll want to be friends with you. All you have to do is be yourself from the start and I know he'll see the same loving, kind, and caring young lady that I see whenever I look at you. Just because those idiots in your House won't accept you for who you are, doesn't mean everyone else is the same way, just look at Luna and Susan, they both accepted you for who you are and now you're best friends. I think that you and Harry both will need a friendship with one another."

Hermione was silent for several moments before she nodded into her mother's shoulder and raised her head again with a determined look on her face. "Okay mum, I'll do my best to become his friend, and if he wants to be friends with me, I'll try to be the best friend he has ever had."

Emma smiled down at her daughter. "That's my girl. Now, let's get up to the Headmaster's Office. I'm sure Hestia is already waiting for us." She got up from the bed, gathering up a winter coat to wear outside in London as she made her way to the door.

"Wait, mum. Do you think it might be a good idea if we brought him something to eat?" Hermione asked as she too grabbed a coat and walked toward the door, her excitement now back.

"That's a great idea, Hermione. We haven't had any lunch yet either so we can get something for all of us." Emma said.

They stopped by the kitchens and received a large meal after a few minutes of waiting. The house elves put the meal in a small picnic basket that was charmed to hold over twice its size at a quarter of its true weight.

When they entered the Headmaster's office, Minerva was gone, apparently to go tell Remus, who was off for the weekend in southern London to search for Harry. Hestia had returned wearing a pair of slacks, a blouse, and a grey cloak.

Albus looked up as they entered the room. "Ah, I see you have brought some food with you. Excellent idea. Now, the Portkey I have made will take you to within 1000 yards of the most current trace of Harry's magical signature. Hestia will use a tracking spell to direct you to Harry's exact location."

Hestia nodded and then held up a torn up trainer that was missing most of the sole and said. "Emma, Hermione, please get a good grip on the Portkey."

They both grabbed onto it and Dumbledore reached out with his wand. "Good luck." He said as he tapped the Portkey with his wand, and the three of them disappeared in a flash of light as they felt a tugging sensation behind their navels.

They landed on a small London street. Hestia, the most experienced with Portkey travel managed to stay on her feet. Emma and Hermione, who were still new to it, lost their balance and sprawled on the floor.

Hestia helped them up and then they all looked around. Most of the visible buildings were pretty run-down, with broken windows, peeling paint, and sagging walls. People had spray-painted what appeared to be gang symbols on some of the walls, and the sidewalks were littered with loose trash.

Hestia shook her head sadly at the thought of Harry living in such a place before she took out her wand and cast the tracking spell attuned to Harry's magical signature that Dumbledore had given her. It shone a light out of the tip of the wand which illuminated magical residue of the person that the spell was attuned to. In front of them, faint glowing footprints appeared on the ground, showing where Harry had walked.

Hestia, Emma, and Hermione followed the most brilliant, and therefore the most recent, set of footprints. When they turned into an alley, the entire floor and the walls of the alley began to glow vibrantly. Hestia lowered the wand to decrease the glare of the light, and then they saw nine unconscious teens lying on the ground, weapons held in their limp hands.

Hestia knelt down and felt for some pulses, and stood up satisfied that the boys were still alive. "This must be where he used the large stunning spell that showed up on Dumbledore's sensors. I think Harry was under attack by these kids and his magic reacted to protect him."

"Harry did all of this?" Hermione asked rhetorically as she looked around at the stunned boys and the glow that indicated where the magic had passed. "He's already pretty powerful, just with accidental magic."

Hestia nodded her head in agreement as she moved around among the teens. She took the weapons away and tossed them into a nearby trash can after transfiguring them into broken tiles. She healed a chest wound in one of the boys which appeared to be caused by some sort of knife. Having done that, she set up a delayed-action _Rennervate_ spell set to revive the teens in an hour. "Come on, let's keep going. Those kids will be waking up in about an hour."

They kept following the brightest set of footprints until they made a sharp turn past a broken down apartment building. The trail led them behind the building and up a wooden plank that led up to a ground floor balcony. Every other set of tracks converged on that single plank, which made Hestia sure they were in the right place. She looked back at Emma and Hermione and her eyes confirmed to them what they too were thinking. This was Harry's home. Hestia looked sadly at the boarded up windows and doors of the building.

The three walked up the large plank and made it onto the balcony. Emma realised that the boarding on the sliding door had been modified to swing open like a regular door, and all of the windows on either side of it had been uncovered to let light in. Hestia took a deep breath before she knocked on the plywood "door". She frowned slightly when a minute went by without any sound from inside. She knocked again, and after waiting another minute, she glanced back at Emma and Hermione and then grasped the wood and pulled it back enough for them to enter.

At first the only things Hestia saw were the peeling wallpaper, the pile of old clothes, and Harry's beat up desk. As her eyes adjusted to the lower light of the room, she saw a cot sitting in the corner. A large white dog was sitting on the cot, growling softly at her. Next to the dog was a young boy with shaggy black hair who had fallen asleep reading a book, his head resting on his arms which were propped on the book.

When she saw his hair draped over his face, she knew without a doubt that it was Harry, having spent seven years in the same House as his father who had the same unruly hair. Tears came to Hestia's eyes when she saw how skinny, frail, and malnourished he looked. She heard Emma and Hermione gasp beside her when they too noticed Harry.

The white dog had stood up on the cot and was now licking at Harry's face while keeping an eye on the three women. Emma took a step forward but stopped abruptly when the dog growled at her and then went back to nudging and licking Harry.

The next few seconds were a blur to Emma and Hermione, and only Hestia, whose eyed had been trained from years of being an Auror, was able to grasp what was happening.

Harry's head snapped up as he slid the book to the side. He leapt to his feet from the bed, and whipped a switchblade out of his pocket. Hestia realized that he had probably been awake since the first nudge from his dog, and had probably been evaluating the situation he found himself in before deciding what to do.

"Who the 'ell are you, and why're you in my 'ouse?" Harry demanded in a low voice.

He had stopped short of being more threatening when he saw he was faced with three women. What he saw confused him greatly. He had woken up to Sirius' nudging and had remained still. He had discovered several years before that he could "see" the colours of people, even with his eyes closed as long as he concentrated.

When he had "seen" the colours of the people that had entered the room, they were brighter than most normal people, although one was not that much more brilliant than most normal humans he saw. Having seen that, he immediately knew they were wizards from what he had seen with Sirius, and what Sirius had told him.

From what Sirius had told him, Harry had expected to see that Lupin man that had known his parents as well as some law enforcement men when he opened his eyes. He had not, however, expected to see the three women now standing in front of him.

One of the women had dark brown, nearly black hair pulled up in a loose bun. She had an air of authority about her, and he felt that she was a police officer or something very similar. The other adult had grey eyes and long bushy brown hair that was pulled back into a ponytail. Something about her face or her expression reminded him of his mum from what he had seen of her in his dreams. The third woman was really more a teenager, and was obviously the second woman's daughter. She had the same bushy brown hair, although she let it fall freely instead of having a ponytail. She had expressive brown eyes, and a friendly look about her. He realised that she couldn't be much older than he was.

The second woman and her daughter both jumped at his sudden movements, but the first woman remained calm and collected, although he could see in her eyes that she was shocked by his threatening manner.

Hestia cleared her throat and spoke gently to Harry. "Harry, we're not here to hurt you in any way. We want to talk to you and help you. My name is Hestia Jones."

Emma took a step forward. "My name is Emma Granger, and this is my daughter…"

Hermione spoke shyly, "I'm Hermione Granger."

Harry's eyes flew to each person that was talking, trying to decipher what they said for their names. He had caught the name Hestia Jones from the first woman, and Emma from the second woman, but hadn't been able to tell what the girl's name was, besides the last name Granger. He didn't like telling people that he was deaf until he had gotten to know them, so he didn't ask them to repeat their names, planning to ask them again later.

Harry glanced at Sirius who had stopped growling at the women. He nodded his head to the women in acknowledgement and said. "Yeah, I'm Harry, and this 'ere's Blackie. 'ow d'you know my name?"

"Harry, I went to school with your parents and was close friends with your mother, so I got to visit often after you were born." Hestia said. "I am an Auror, which is something like a police officer, and Emma here is a professor at a private school called Hogwarts, which is a school for witches and wizards. We have come here to get you off of the streets and into the school if you would like."

"What're you talkin' about, about witches and wizards?" Harry asked, making sure no one would ever suspect that he had already heard most of this from someone else.

"Witches and wizards are not just fantasy, Harry, they truly exist. You're a wizard, Harry. You can use magic, and in fact you used it today. We saw the boys that you knocked out. Very often young wizards and witches, when they are in a stressful situation, have outbursts of accidental magic. Yours was large enough that it was detected."

Harry then asked, "So, you were good friends with my mum? D'you know why I got put with my aunt and uncle?"

Hestia hung her head and then sadly raised her eyes to Harry. "I-I tried to talk them out of putting you there. I even offered to raise you on my own. Your parents had said they never wanted you to go near the Dursleys, and gave a long list of people that you should have been placed with. Unfortunately, the executor of your parent's will is also the most powerful and influential wizard in the U.K. He believed that you would receive a blood protection by living with your aunt that would protect you from certain people. You see, your parents were killed by a very powerful evil wizard. When he tried to kill you, you were protected by your mother's sacrifice of her life for you, allowing you to survive. The protective magic ended up destroying his body. The supposed blood protection was to keep you safe from his followers."

She paused for a moment and then said, "I have no idea why you were never checked up on, and everyone close to your parents no longer trusts the man who put you with the Dursleys. I am so sorry you had to live with those monsters, Harry. We have found out everything that they did to you." Hestia saw Harry's face pale. "Your uncle is now in prison for the rest of his life for what he did, and every bit of money that they received to take care of you that they used on themselves has been taken away from them."

Harry was saddened by the confirmation of what he had believed for years: his parents were dead. A small part of him, however, felt relief, because it took away any doubt that he had that they might have been alive and just didn't care for him and had dumped him with the Dursleys.

He shook his head clear of those thoughts and asked Hestia, "So, you're here to take me to this wizard school you were talkin' about? 'ogwarts was it?"

"Yes, Harry. Hogwarts is a school for children to learn how to use and control their magic. You should have gotten an invitation two-and-a-half years ago, but you had gone missing, and our owls couldn't find you. Wizards use owls to send letters and such, similar to post."

"I've always wanted to go to school." Harry said, liking the idea of going to school and learning how to do the sorts of things he had read about in fantasy books. His expression fell as a thought crossed his mind. "But I won't be able to go if it costs money, I used my last bit today."

Hestia smiled softly and slowly reached her arm out to lay a hand on his shoulder. He forced himself to not flinch away. "Harry, the Potter family is one of the oldest and richest Wizarding families. Besides the money taken back from the Dursleys, your parents set up a trust account for you with more than enough money to get you through Hogwarts. When you become an adult, you will get access to the actual family vault which had much more than the trust account."

Harry's mind reeled at the thought that he had a bank account with a lot of money this entire time he had lived on the street. His thoughts then turned back to the topic of magic.

"Um, so, this magic stuff. I've 'ad weird things 'appen to me before like injuries healin' really fast, and the thing with the gang out there. I can also do this." Harry reached out his hand and levitated one of the books on the desk over to himself and watched the three women stare at his display of magic with wide eyes. "I found out I could do that a few years ago and I've been practicin' since. At this wizard school I'll get to learn to do more things like that?"

Hestia smiled and nodded her head. "Yes, Harry. I don't think you will have any trouble learning how to use your magic if you can do something like that. Most wizards and witches have to use magic wands to focus their power enough to do what you just did, and you did it without a magical incantation that is normal for a spell."

"Could you do some magic? I'd like t'see 'ow someone else does it." Harry said excitedly.

Hestia removed her hand from Harry's shoulder and reached into a holster strapped onto her left arm. Harry tensed for a moment but relaxed when he saw her wand. "This is what a magic wand looks like. It has a magical core inside to help focus and amplify a wizard's natural magic so they can do spells easily. Watch."

She picked up a pencil from his desk and muttered something. In a glow of colour, the pencil transformed into a long-stemmed rose. Harry took it from her hand and examined it, all the while becoming more impressed at what was possible with magic.

Harry looked over expectantly at Emma and her daughter. Emma shook her head. "I'm sorry Harry, I'm what wizards call a Muggle. I'm an ordinary person who can't use magic."

"Then 'ow come you're a professor at that 'ogwarts school?"

"I teach about the Muggle world in a class called Muggle studies. Many wizards know almost nothing about the non-magical world, so I do my best to teach them. Wile I can't do magic, I'm sure my daughter would love to do some for you."

Now Harry looked confused. "What? Did you marry a wizard or something?"

Emma smiled. "No, a very common type of wizard or witch is called a Muggleborn – a witch who was born to two Muggle parents. I believe that your mother was a Muggle born like my daughter."

Hermione took a step forward. "Would you like me to show you a spell, Harry?"

He nodded in answer. She walked up to him while taking out her wand. He froze when she pointed it directly at his face. "_Occulus Reparo._" She incanted, tapping his glasses with her wand.

The glasses gave a jerk, and the frame mended the broken bridge that was held together with tape, while every chip, scratch and scuff in the lenses disappeared before his eyes. His fear at the wand being pointed at him was replaced by amazement. He took off the glasses and examined them with a look of wonder on his face. He could find no damage at all. As he put them back on, he realized how much clearer everything was, even though he was using the prescription that Amy had managed to pay for several years ago which was now slightly too weak for his current vision.

He looked back up to see the girl being reprimanded by her mother for scaring him. She looked abashedly at him. "I'm sorry about scaring you like that, Harry. I was excited to show you a spell and wasn't thinking how it would be to have a wand pointed in your face."

He shook his head. "S'ok, I just a little worried for a minute. Thank you so much for fixin' my glasses. It's so much easier t'see now. That was amazin' magic!"

The girl blushed and shrugged her shoulders dismissively. Hestia then said, "Harry, if you would like to go, why don't you pack up anything that you want to keep, and we'll get you out of here."

"Okay," Harry said, smiling. "I've just got a few things I want to take." He turned around to face his cot, picked up his beat-up rucksack, and began to put things into it.

Emma turned to Hestia and spoke in a low voice. "Hestia, we should take him to my house for the night, and take him shopping in Diagon Alley and downtown London tomorrow. I think it will be easier on him and not as overwhelming as going directly to Hogwarts today if we introduce all of these new things to him slowly."

Hestia nodded in agreement. "That sounds good. I was thinking about bringing him to my place, but you have more room at your house, while I just have a one room flat. I'll go back to Hogwarts later and let Minerva and Remus know what's going on. Do you have your Portkey to your house with you?"

Emma nodded, patting the left pocket of her jeans where she had put the Portkey before they left to look for Harry.

Meanwhile, Hermione was watching Harry pack his bag with a thoughtful look on her face. She saw that he had two large stacks of books sitting on the desk that he had started to put into his rucksack, and was immediately excited to see that Harry seemed to like reading. It gave her hope that they would at least have that in common. Her eyes widened when she saw some of the books that he had, some of which were generally considered "adult" books, although she had read them herself. She noted one book in particular: Oliver Twist.

"So, Harry, do you like Charles Dickens' writing?" She asked him. She frowned slightly when he didn't answer her or even acknowledge that she had asked the question. She asked louder a second time and when he didn't answer, her thoughtful look deepened. Everything clicked into place in her thoughts when she saw a small dictionary for British Sign Language that looked well worn.

When he put it into his rucksack, she moved next to him and touched his arm gently. Harry looked up at her touch. _'Are you deaf?'_ She signed in question to him.

Harry's jaw dropped, and then he slowly nodded to her. '_You can sign?'_ He signed back to her.

Hermione answered. _'Yes, I learned to sign while I was learning how to talk. My grandmother lost her hearing when my mum was thirteen, so she and my mum had to learn sign language, and my mum made sure that I learned how to sign when I was little.'_

Emma's eyes had widened when she saw her daughter sign to Harry, and even more surprised when he said that he was deaf. When she looked back now on the conversation they had just had with Harry, she realized that there had been some small signs that he was deaf, especially his focus on each person's mouth when they were talking. She was very surprised that he had been able to hide his lack of hearing so well during that entire conversation.

Hestia nudged her shoulder. Emma turned her head as Hestia asked, "Emma, what are they doing? Is that sign language?"

Emma nodded. "Yes, it is. Apparently, Harry is deaf, and Hermione just figured it out."

Hestia looked shocked and then saddened at yet another thing that Harry had had to face during his life.

Emma moved closer after Hermione had told Harry that both of them knew sign language. She gave him a warm smile and signed, speaking aloud as well mainly for Hestia's benefit. _'It's true, Harry, I know how to sign as well. We often visit my mother, and I thought it was an important skill for the entire family to have.'_

Harry turned his attention back to the girl. _'I'm sorry, I wasn't able to catch your name when you said it before.'_

She smiled at him. _'Oh, my name is Hermione,'_ she signed, fingerspelling her name.

Harry ran the letters through his mind. "Hermione? Is that how to pronounce it? Like from Greek mythology?" He asked aloud.

She nodded. _'Yes, you pronounced it correctly. And you are right, it is from Greek mythology. Hermione was the daughter of Helen and Menelaus from epics about the Trojan war. That's where my mum got the name from. Do you like Greek mythology?_' She signed.

_'Yes, I love go to the library and read about all of the different mythologies. It is always challenging to look up the pronunciation of the names so I can say them correctly. I ran into the name Hermione a few months ago, so it's nice to know if I'm pronouncing things right.'_ He signed back to her.

Emma got his attention again. _'Harry, you should have told us you couldn't hear. Even if we couldn't sign, we could have made sure we talked clearly for you to lip-read, or even written things down.'_

_'Well, I didn't know if I could trust you completely yet, and I was kind of worried I might not be able to go to the school if you found out.'_ He looked at her worriedly. _'I will still be able to go, won't I?'_

_'Of course Harry. We'll have to change some things to adjust, but you'll be able to go. Are you finished packing?'_ She signed.

_'Yeah, I've just got to toss these last books in my bag and I'm ready.'_ He signed back before turning around and stuffing the books into his bulging rucksack. _'Okay, I'm ready. Where are we going now?'_

_'We've decided that we will take you to my house for the night. Tomorrow we'll take you shopping and then go to Hogwarts, because the new term starts on Sunday when all of the students get back from holiday.'_ Emma signed.

Harry nodded and then she pulled out a medallion which had been made into a Portkey. _'Harry, this is a magic device called a Portkey. You have to grab onto it and hold on tight. When it activates it will transport us to my house.'_

Harry reached out to grab it with Hermione and Hestia thinking that it must be similar to the several "teleporting incidents" as he liked to call them when he had disappeared from one place and reappeared in his room. Hestia grabbed hold of Sirius' collar.

He saw Emma say some sort of activation word, and then he felt a sharp tug from behind his navel before everything started spinning and glowing. It stopped suddenly and they were slammed into the floor of a house. Harry, Hermione, and Emma staggered and landed in a heap while Hestia landed nimbly on her feet along with Sirius.

Hermione was on the top so she was the first up and she helped Emma and Harry to their feet. After Harry was back on his feet, Hermione signed to him, _'Welcome to my home, Harry._'

AN: Thank you everyone for your reviews and your patience. I mainly only had part of this week to work on the chapter, and I rewrote it several times before I was satisfied by it. Unfortunately, starting this Saturday and going until next Wednesday I have finals, so I have to do a lot of studying this week. The next chapter will probably be posted about two weeks from today, possibly a few days more.

Anyone familiar with sign language probably knows that when you are signing, you don't actually sign out every single word that you would say if you were using spoken English, but in my story I will just be writing out the "interpretation" of what they mean in italics and single quotes, to make the writing easier.

Next chapter: shopping in London and arrival at Hogwarts.

Please Review and let me know what you think!


	5. Chapter 4: Shopping

Disclaimer: It's JKR's, not mine. All of the characters, settings, and ideas from the books belong to JK Rowling. I have never, and will never profit from these writings. The only things that are mine are the parts of the plot differing from the books, any original characters, and the characterization of Hermione's parents.

Key: Sentences in italics with single quotes surrounding them indicates sign language. ('_Sort of like this')_

AN: I am very sorry for the horrendously long wait. I had hoped to have this posted before Christmas, but with all of my finals, Christmas shopping (including my yearly e-bay binge), I was unable to finish the chapter by the time I left for my vacation in Florida where I had no computer access for either typing or internet use. I just got back a few days ago and got the chapter finished up and got it back from my beta today. I thank all of you for waiting so long, and I really hope I never leave you with such a long wait again. From now on, the standard wait time should be around two weeks between each chapter.

Chapter 4: Shopping

_Granger Residence, North London – Friday, 31 December, 1993_

Harry looked around the room in which he had landed. It was a rather large room, larger than the one he had in the run-down apartment. There was a big couch along one wall as well as several reclining chairs scattered around the room. The walls were painted a peach color, and across from the couch was a large television sitting on a wooden stand. Most of the stand was hollow in the middle and contained shelves of videocassette tapes of various movies. On one side of the room there was a small fireplace. Several paintings hung from the walls, the windows had light colored drapery around them, and the room had a warm feeling to it.

'_Would you like to eat some lunch?_' Emma signed. She smiled at him when he nodded vigorously and she motioned for him to follow her as she left the room. Hestia, Hermione, and Blackie followed behind Harry as Emma led them into a large kitchen. _'Please sit down at the table, Harry.'_ Emma signed to him.

He sat in the soft, comfortable chair at the table, as did Hestia, while Blackie curled up on the floor next to Harry's feet next to where he had placed his rucksack. Harry saw Emma and Hermione set down the basket that Emma had been carrying since leaving Hogwarts. They reached into it and pulled out a full set of plates and silverware, along with some food. It looked to be much more than the basket could hold, so he knew that it must have some sort of spell on it to allow that much inside.

Emma handed out plates to everyone. On the plates were ham sandwiches, chips, and a small pastry. It was one of the biggest meals Harry had ever seen. He looked around and saw everyone else begin to eat so he started to eat as well. His plate had two sandwiches which he wolfed down hungrily before eating most of the chips and the pastry. He looked around as he finished and was surprised to see he was the first one done. He took his remaining chips and fed them to Blackie.

He noticed all three women looking at him sadly. _'When did you last have a meal, Harry?'_ Hermione signed.

_'Blackie and I shared some ice cream for a treat today, that used up all of my money. I had half a tin of fruit yesterday.'_ He replied, shrugging.

'_Well, you won't have to worry about food anymore. I'll make sure you get plenty here, and when we go to Hogwarts, you'll be able to get food whenever you want.'_ Emma signed to him.

The others were soon finished eating their lunch and stood up from the table. Emma turned to Hermione. "Hermione, why don't you show Harry around the house while I get the bed in the guestroom made for Harry to sleep in tonight."

"Alright mum," Hermione said. She turned to Harry. _'Come on, Harry, I'm going to give you a tour of our house.' _

She got up and Harry followed her out of the room with Blackie trotting alongside him. She led him down a hallway to a large entrance closed by two large oak doors. She turned the heavy brass knob of the door and pulled it open while allowing him to step inside the room.

When he looked inside he gasped aloud. It was a huge room, much larger than the room he had been living in. Two large windows looked out over the back lawn on one window. Every other section of the walls were covered by bookcases that nearly reached the vaulted ceiling of the room. Every bookcase was completely full, and there were even short book shelves beneath the windows. In the center of the room there were several reclining chairs as well as a wooden table.

He looked around in wonder at the room before looking over to Hermione who had moved beside him_. 'You have your own library here?'_ He asked in disbelief. Hermione nodded. _'This is the family library. Most of this is my mum's that she has been collecting since she started high school. My mum and dad also have their own study a few doors down where they keep all of their work books and materials. I have my own bookshelves in my room with my own personal books. I'm sure you can tell we like reading in my family.'_ She signed with a grin on her face.

He smiled back at her_. 'I love to read too. Ever since I learned how, I've been reading every chance I get.'_ He signed, once again looking around at the hundreds and hundreds of books contained in the library.

_'You can look around at the books if you'd like to, Harry.'_ Hermione signed to him.

They spent the next twenty minutes in the library, with Harry looking around at all of the books, and he and Hermione discussing some of them when he came upon one that he had already read.

When they were finished, Hermione led him around the rest of the house, making sure he knew where the loo was, and took him outside to show him their large yard. The large flower garden that took up a good portion of land near the back door was barren because of the winter, but Hermione told him that it was rather beautiful in the spring and summer.

Finally they went back into the house and Hermione took him upstairs to a bedroom at the end of the hall. _'This will be where you sleep tonight, Harry.'_ She signed to him before pushing the door open.

The bedroom was rather large, with beige colored walls, two dressers against one wall, and a large bed against the other. A nightstand sat next to the bed with a lamp and an alarm clock.

Hermione watched Harry's eyes light up when he saw the room. He looked over to her. _'I get to sleep here?'_ She nodded to him. He walked over to the bed and sat down on it, letting out a deep sigh when he felt how comfortable it was, especially compared to the cot that he had slept on the last few years.

He looked back up at Hermione who still stood in the doorway. _'Can you tell me more about Hogwarts?'_ He asked her, and she smiled and sat on the bed next to him.

_'Well, first of all, the students of the school are split up into four groups, called houses…'_

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Emma Granger stepped away from the guest room door after having watched Hermione talking to Harry about Hogwarts. She had checked in on them several times over the past hour, and it seemed as if Harry had the same enthusiasm for learning new things as Hermione did.

Emma walked down to the kitchen where Hestia sat drinking some tea. Hestia looked up at her entrance. Emma sat down at the table next to her, smiling slightly. "Well, I think those two have hit it off rather well. I have a feeling they'll be great friends."

Hestia smiled back. "I hope so. Did you see all the books he had? I guess we'll have to wait and see which one of them likes to read more." Her expression dimmed as she remembered what she had been thinking about before Emma came in. She sighed and said, "I'll head back to Hogwarts in a while. I'm really not looking forward to telling Remus about Harry being deaf. I know him well enough to know that he'll blame himself for it, heck, even I feel guilty about it."

Emma nodded, looking down at her hands. "I know, he seems to try to take on blame for things that he has no control over." She looked back at Hestia. "At least stay for dinner before you leave, Hestia."

Hestia smiled gratefully. "Okay, I'll stay for dinner. I'll go talk to Minerva and Remus after we eat, and I'll stay at Hogwarts for the night. Tomorrow morning I have to be there for the Order meeting to tell them about Harry. We shouldn't be any later than ten o'clock. I'd like to come with you three when you go to Diagon Alley tomorrow, so could you wait for me?"

"Of course we'll wait. Well, I'd better get started on dinner." Emma said, getting up and walking over to turn on her oven.

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Emma passed her daughter's room and was surprised to see her in there, running a finger along the spines of her books that filled her large bookshelves.

"Honey? Where's Harry?" Hermione looked up, startled by her mother's voice.

"Oh, hi mum. Harry's back in his room. I'm finding a few books for him to read." She said, pointing to two books on her bed: _Hogwarts, A History_ and _Introduction to the Magical World: A Guidebook for Muggleborn Witches and Wizards_. "I'm going to let him keep my first copy of _Hogwarts, A History._"

"That's very nice of you, honey. I just came up to tell you two that dinner is almost ready, so you should wash up and head for the kitchen. Get Harry for me, okay?"

"Alright, mum." Hermione said. "Is daddy coming home for dinner?"

Emma frowned. "No, I called him at the office but he said that since we weren't supposed to be her this weekend, he had planned a night out with some of his old university buddies to celebrate New Year's Eve."

Hermione pulled a third book off the shelf, _Standard Book of Spells, Grade One._ Emma's eyes widened. "Are you going to start teaching him magic already?"

Hermione smiled. "No, now I'm getting some of my First Year books to bring along so Harry can start learning once we get to school. I'll go get Harry now, and get the rest of the books later."

Emma nodded and left the room to finish setting the table. Hermione turned back to the books and set aside the textbook and then grabbed the other two and walked quickly out of the room and over to the guest room. Inside, she found Harry sitting in the same spot she had left him, except he was now petting his dog, Blackie, who had jumped up on the bed next to him. Blackie looked up when he heard her enter, causing Harry to look up as well, smiling slightly when he saw her come in, carrying two large books. She handed him the two books. _'Here are the books I told you about, Harry. You can keep them, I have other copies.'_

_'Thanks, Hermione, but you don't have to give them to me.'_ Harry signed back.

_'No, I want you to have them. Oh, my mum came up and said that it's almost time for dinner, so we should head downstairs.'_ Hermione signed to him.

_'All right Hermione, whatever she made smells really good.' _He signed before he set the books on the bed and followed her out of the room, Blackie walking right behind him.

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Dinner was the best meal Harry had ever eaten in his life. Emma had prepared salads, and had made a large Shepherd's pie. His favorite thing, however, was the delicious pumpkin pie that they ate after the main course. He found out from Hermione that it was one of her own favorite foods, and her mother made it for them every weekend that they came home from Hogwarts.

After dinner, Emma brought him to the loo near his room, and told him he could take a shower, and she would get Hestia to clean up his clothes with a spell before she left for the night.

She showed him how to work the shower controls and left to let him undress and set his clothes by the door. He stepped into the shower stall and turned the knob to the left, and let the hot water flow over his head. The closest he had ever come to taking a shower was in the summer when he stood outside in the rain, which was more than he ever got during his years with the Dursleys.

He had never felt such warm water, and because of that, he ended up staying in the shower for almost twenty minutes. Towards the end, as the water started to get cooler, he used the shampoo and body soap that Emma had given to him to wash himself.

He stepped out of the shower after drying off with large fluffy towel, and saw his now clean clothes sitting just inside the door. He slipped them on, welcoming the feeling of being totally clean for the first time he could remember.

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After Hestia used a cleaning charm on Harry's clothing, she said goodbye to Emma and Hermione, and took a Portkey out to Hogwarts to go inform Remus and Minerva about Harry. Emma had cooked some rice when she was cooking dinner, and she placed it in a bowl and gave it to Blackie to eat. She made a mental note to buy some dog food when they went to downtown London.

While Harry was showering, Emma and Hermione moved to the living room, bringing books with them to read while sitting next to each other on the couch. Emma sat down next to Hermione who was already reading the next few chapters for Transfiguration, probably for the third or fourth time.

"So, how are you getting along with Harry?" Emma asked as she sat down.

Hermione looked up from her book with a smile on her face. "Great. I really like him. He really likes reading and learning new things just like me, and he seems to like me too. I think we're going to be good friends. I can't wait to introduce him to Luna and Susan when we get back to school."

"That's great, sweetie. I think he really warmed up to you when he found out you knew sign language." Emma said.

"Yeah, I'm really glad that now he'll know at least two people that can use sign language, so he won't feel alone or out of place."

Emma nodded, looking down at her book. "Oh, tomorrow we're going to eat breakfast here and then wait for Hestia before we go to Diagon Alley. Could you get a list of books ready, so we know what we need to get Harry?"

Hermione grinned and pulled a folded piece of paper from the pocket of her jeans. "Already ahead of you, mum. I've got a list of all the books we've used since First year, and some books that I found useful to supplement the classes."

Emma gave her a mischievous smile and asked teasingly, "Ah, do you have his tutoring schedule all made out too?"

"No, I only had enough time to just start it and…" Hermione stopped and blushed when she realised Emma was teasing her. "Mu-um. Very funny." She said in exasperation, rolling her eyes.

Emma chuckled and reached over to ruffle her daughter's already wild hair before she turned her attention back to her book. The two sat reading in a warm silence for ten more minutes. Just when Emma was starting to get worried about how long Harry had been in there, she heard the water turn off in the shower.

Several minutes later, Emma and Hermione looked up from their books when they heard Harry's footsteps reach the doorway of the living room. Emma saw her daughter's jaw drop, and nearly felt hers do the same. Harry looked almost completely different after his shower. Without all of the grime and dirt, his skin appeared much paler, but not quite as sickly as it had before. His hair, while still unruly, showed a natural shine rather than the dull color it had been. Overall, he looked a lot healthier now that he was clean even with the obvious malnourishment that was still visible.

'_You look great, Harry'_. Emma signed to him when he looked her way. _'You're much more handsome when you're cleaned up'_ She signed, smiling when his cheeks turned red. _'Why don't you get a book and join us here, Harry? It's sort of our family tradition on weekends to read together.'_

"Okay, Mrs. Granger." Harry said, still looking embarrassed, before he went back to his room to grab a book. He came back carrying _Hogwarts, A History_. Emma moved over on the couch and patted the cushion in between her and Hermione. _'You can sit here, Harry.'_

He hesitated a moment and then sat down between them and opened the book. They all sat reading for the next few hours before Emma looked up from her book with a yawn. She glanced at the clock, and nudged Harry's shoulder. He looked up and she signed to him while speaking loud enough to get Hermione's attention. _'I think I'm going to head off to bed. Don't stay up too late you two. Harry, if you need anything tonight, just wake up Hermione or me, okay?'_

Harry nodded, and Hermione looked up from her book. _'We won't stay up too much later, mum, I'm just going to finish this chapter and then I'll get to bed.'_

Emma stood up and left the room to put her book away and get ready for bed. Several minutes later, Hermione closed her own book and stood up. _'I'm going to bed now too, Harry, don't stay up too late, we have a lot of shopping to do tomorrow.' _

Harry stayed in the room reading for a while longer, and closed the book. He found it to be a very interesting book, and he had already learned quite a bit about Hogwarts between what Hermione had explained to him and what he had read so far. He stood from the couch, patted Sirius, who had curled up by his feet, on the head, and walked toward his room with Sirius close behind.

When he got to the bed, he said goodnight to Sirius, and fell asleep almost immediately, thinking about the Granger's and how kind and helpful they were being to him, unaware of the New Year's Eve fireworks lighting up the skies throughout London, something that he normally stayed up to watch while on the streets.

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_Granger Residence, North London – Saturday, 1 January, 1994 _

Harry woke up slowly from a slightly bad dream to the smell of something delicious cooking in the kitchen. He jerked awake and stumbled out of bed, still groggy, and rushed downstairs. "I-I'm sorry, Uncle Vernon, I slept in late and didn't get th'breakfast ready, I'll never do it again!" He blurted out, still half asleep and beginning to panic.

A hand touched his shoulder and he jerked back, raising his arm to cover his head. Then, a woman's face came into view, and even though he wasn't wearing his glasses, he recognised her. His mind began to clear up and process what was happening while he said, "M-Mrs. Granger?"

She nodded and he watched her lips move. He could make out that she asked him if he was all right, and he saw a worried expression on her face. He nodded and said shakily "Y-yeah, I think I was 'avin a bad dream an' then I smelled the f-food and thought…" He trailed off and watched her say that it was all right. Then she said something about a dress, and he was confused for a moment until he realised she was telling him he should get dressed. "Okay," he said more strongly, realizing everything was fine. He made his way up to the room and felt around for his glasses, slipped them on, and came face to face with Sirius' dog form's worried eyes.

He gave a slight smile to Sirius. "I'm alright, Sirius, just a bad dream." When he saw Sirius relax a little, he walked to the dresser and changed into his clothes. Emma had given him and old pair of shorts and a t-shirt to wear to bed, and he folded them and placed them on the dresser. "C'mon, Blackie, let's go get somethin' to eat."

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Downstairs, Emma looked worriedly over at Hermione, who was sitting at the table about to begin eating her breakfast, as Harry left the kitchen to get dressed. "I guess we were right that he would have trouble with the issue of his Uncle."

Hermione nodded, looking angry. "Did you hear what he said? His uncle was making him cook breakfast, and he was what, four or five when he was with them?"

Emma nodded wearily. "Yes, I suspect he made Harry do a lot of things like that, and it will take Harry a long time to get through all of the issues caused by his uncle. I think he'll need both of us to support him."

She was stopped from saying more when Harry came into the room, looking very embarrassed and rather tense. "Um, I'm sorry 'bout before…" He started to apologise, but Emma held up a hand. _'You don't have anything to worry about, Harry, we understand, and you don't have to apologise for anything.' _He looked from her to Hermione, who smiled encouragingly and nodded, and only then did he relax.

She picked up a plate that she had filled with two fried eggs, several rashers of bacon, and a few sausages, and put it on the table_. 'Go ahead, Harry, eat up.' _She signed to him, setting a cup of tea alongside a cup of orange juice next to his plate.

He sat down, his embarrassment from before forgotten, and began to eat the breakfast Emma had made. He slipped a few bits of bacon to Blackie who had curled up near his chair. He finished well before Hermione, and looked at the two women. _'Thank you for making me breakfast. It was really delicious.'_ He hesitated and then signed again. _'I could have made some breakfast, Mrs. Granger, you didn't have to go to the trouble.'_

Emma shook her head. _'Nonsense, Harry, you are our guest here, and I wouldn't dream of making you cook our meals.'_ When it looked like Harry was about to protest she held up her hand. _'You can help me make a meal next time if you would like.'_

Harry smiled and nodded. He sat silently for few minutes, and, looking around the table, he saw a fourth place at the table was set, obviously for Hermione's father who he had not yet met. Hermione stopped eating for a moment and signed to him. _'Happy New Year, Harry.'_

He looked confused for a moment and then realised what day it was. _'Oh, Happy New Year, Hermione. I forgot about it with everything that went on yesterday. I usually stay up and watch all the fireworks.'_

Emma had finished eating and excused herself from the table. She walked out of the kitchen and up to her bedroom where her husband, Tom, was sleeping off a night of partying. She had woken up at nearly two in the morning when he finally got back. She shook his shoulder, and he slowly woke up. "What is it?" He asked blearily.

"Time to get up, Tom, your breakfast is waiting for you, and you said you had to get into work today to go over this year's budget, and make sure everyone has paid for all of their appointments from last year."

He groaned, rubbed his eyes, and slowly got up, his head pounding. "Alright, I'm up, I'm up." He said as he stood and began to get dressed.

"Tom," Emma said, "we have a guest this morning. Yesterday we finally located that one Harry Potter boy that I told you about, you know, the one who was abused and his relatives abandoned him?" He nodded, remembering she had told him something like that. "I decided to let him stay here for the night, and all of us will be going back to the school today, so he'll be downstairs when you come down."

Tom turned to her with an angry expression. "He's one of those damn wizards? You let him stay in our house, are you out of your mind?"

Emma took a step back, not expecting such an outburst, before her expression hardened. "In case you had forgotten, your daughter is one of those "damn wizards" as you call them, and you seem to let her stay in the house."

"You don't have to remind me about her. I don't think we should encourage her with all of that wizard junk any more than we already are by letting her go to that ridiculous school. I want that freak out of my house. The only wizard I'm gonna allow here is Hermione."

"Harry will only be here for today, Tom. I was not asking your permission, I was merely letting you know he was here. And might I remind you who paid for this house?" She said, reminding him none too gently that she paid for the house using her own money as well as a loan from her parents, when Tom had still been barely able to pay off his car that he had had for five years at the time. "Now, Harry is a guest here, and he and Hermione have become friends, so I expect you to treat him with respect."

Tom waved his arms in disgust. "Fine, as long as he's not here tonight. Just don't expect me to talk to him."

Emma turned on her heel and stormed out of the room, leaving Tom to finish dressing.

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Down at the table, Harry was looking at the headlines on the front page of _The Times_. The family got both _The Times_ and _The Daily Telegraph _which was her father's favorite paper. Hermione had just finished her breakfast when she heard her parents yelling again. It was becoming a more and more common occurrence, and, she noticed, it almost always had to do with her or with wizards in general. She could only hear bits and pieces of the argument, but it was enough to know they were either arguing about her or about Harry staying the night, or maybe both. She felt tears come to her eyes when she heard her father, not for the first time, say something about "damn wizards", and the feeling worsened when she heard him call either Harry or her a "freak".

Ever since she had received her Hogwarts letter, her father had become less interested in her, and sometimes even seemed to ignore her if she talked about anything from school. When her mum had taken the Professor position at Hogwarts, the arguments between them had become more frequent and heated. She hated being the reason for their arguments, and had even considered not going to school the next year. When she had gained the friendship of Luna Lovegood and Susan Bones, she considered it less and less, and now with Harry, she knew there was no chance. She needed to help him at school, and she was really the first witch or wizard he had ever met, and abandoning him would probably make things caused by what had happened with his uncle worse.

She was jolted out of her thoughts by Harry's voice. "Hermione, are you alright?" He asked, sounding worried. She swiped at the tears that had just begun to come out of her eyes and looked at Harry, forcing a smile, knowing that he had not heard the argument. "Y-yeah, I'm fine, just had something in my eye." She said, before switching over to sign language. _'Do you mind if I look at the paper with you?' _

He shook his head, and she moved her chair over next to his and began to read one of the articles on the front page. Emma came in a few minutes later, having calmed down, but Hermione could see her face was still flushed from the argument. She smiled when she saw her reading the paper with Harry. She bustled about the kitchen, pouring a glass of tea for herself, before sitting at the table and borrowing the World News section.

Several minutes later, Tom entered the kitchen and grabbed his _Daily Telegraph_ and sat down to eat. He pointedly ignored Harry and Hermione who sat across the table. Harry had looked up when Tom had come in, and was going to greet him and introduce himself, but he had totally ignored him, in fact he had not given a glance in Harry's direction.

Hermione saw Harry glance at her with a confused look and she cleared her throat and spoke up. "Good morning, daddy, I'd like you to meet Harry." He finally glanced over at them with a disapproving expression, and grunted something before turning back to the paper.

Hermione turned to Harry. _'That's my dad, Harry, I think he had too much to drink last night so he's really grumpy this morning.'_ She signed, although she knew that his demeanor had to do with having another wizard in the house.

The rest of the breakfast, everyone read the paper in awkward silence. Tom finished eating and reading the paper and finally stood up. "I'm headed off to work now." He finally announced.

Emma responded with a tight nod and continued reading the paper, sipping her tea occasionally. Tom piled his dished next to the sink, and left the room to get his shoes on before he went outside, climbed into his car, and drove off to the dental practice.

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_Order Meeting, Great Hall, Hogwarts – Saturday, 1 January, 1994_

Hestia Jones sat down near the head of the large table that had been set up for the Order meeting. Glancing around she saw nearly every Order member in the room, with the notable exception of Severus Snape, who, she had learned from Minerva, was on some sort of "mission" for Dumbledore – presumably something that had to do with Voldemort. Minerva was sitting in the chair next to her, and Remus sat across from her, looking the happiest she had seen him since Lily and James were killed.

She remembered the previous night, talking privately to Remus and Minerva about everything that had happened with Harry. She believed it was the first time she had seen Remus cry since they found out about the abuse, except this time they were tears of relief. As she had predicted, Remus had immediately started blaming himself when he heard about Harry's living conditions and the fact that he was deaf. She and Minerva had eventually talked some sense into him, and got him to accept that it had been beyond his control. He reluctantly agreed, and then set off for the school library to learn as much as he could about deafness, particularly deafness in wizards, and how likely it would be that Harry could be treated by magic.

Hestia had given a limited report to Dumbledore, pretty much just saying that they had found Harry and that he was okay under the circumstances, and that he was staying with the Grangers for the night. He had seemed a little disappointed that she hadn't brought him back like he had asked, but didn't make any comment on it.

As the last member came into the room, an Auror with the Ministry, Dumbledore stood up, calling for silence. "I have some good news, and I won't waste your time by dodging around it. Yesterday, my instruments detected the use of magic by Harry Potter. I was able to locate it, and sent Miss Jones as well as Professor Emma Granger and her daughter Hermione to make contact with him."

The noise level of the room immediately grew as people spoke excitedly with fellow members, especially those who personally knew the Potters. Dumbledore waited until he had everyone's attention again before he spoke. "I would like to now turn over the floor to Hestia for a report on what happened."

Hestia stood up, casting a glance across the room, seeing several people including Molly Weasley and of course Hagrid, sitting with tears of relief in their eyes, or in Hagrid's case, tears soaking his beard. "Good morning everyone. I think I can safely say this is a very, very happy New Year's Day. I went yesterday to find Harry in downtown London. We found him living in an abandoned apartment building, and talked with him. He accepted that he was a wizard much easier than I expected, mainly because he had had some accidental magic happen to him, including what had happened an hour before we got there. I also found that he seems to have some practice in actually using magic consciously. He said that he found out several years ago that he could levitate things with enough concentration, and he has been practicing since then on it. He seemed very interested in magic, asking us to show him some spells."

Hestia paused, catching her breath and taking a sip from a goblet containing water that she had conjured before the meeting started. She continued explaining most of what had happened, seeing shock and sadness in most of the Order members' faces when she told them about Harry's deafness. She finally concluded by saying that Harry had stayed overnight with the Grangers, and that they were going to Diagon Alley today to get things for Harry.

Dumbledore stood again, obviously sobered by Hestia's recounting. "Thank you Hestia. I believe that that is all we will discuss today, unless anyone has something to bring up." When nobody spoke up, he dismissed the meeting, saying, "I think it would be best if we wait until tomorrow to say anything to the Ministry and even longer before anyone tells the papers."

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_Granger Residence, North London – Saturday, 1 January, 1994_

Hermione knocked quickly on Harry's door, before slapping herself on the forehead when she realised he wouldn't hear her. She opened the door slowly to see him standing with his back to the door, pulling a T-shirt over his head, his hair still wet from the shower he had just taken. She had seen her mum smile when Harry had asked if he could take another shower, which would apparently be the second he had ever taken. Hermione gasped, her hand flying to her mouth, when she saw that his back was covered with white and light brown scars, some looking very large and deep.

His back was quickly covered up with the shirt, and he turned around, jumping back when he saw her standing in the doorway. He shifted uncomfortably when he realised her look of shock was because she had seen the scars on his back.

_'Er, hello, Harry, I was just coming to see if you had any questions about what you've read in the book I gave you.' _She signed, not commenting on his back, knowing he would be uncomfortable speaking about it.

She saw she was right when he relaxed at her question. He sat down on the bed next to Blackie, who they had told Harry could sleep on the bed like he had been on Harry's cot the last week. _'Yeah, I did have some questions. I don't think many people at the school know how to sign, so what will I do during classes to take notes since I'll have to pay attention to reading lips?'_

Hermione sat down on the bed on the other side of Blackie, and answered. _'Well, I recently got a quill called an Easy-Notes Quill, and I figured we could get one for you. It has a magic charm on it so that it writes out notes for you from the important points that the professor is talking about.'_

_'Wow, that sounds good. I guess you can do almost anything with magic if you want to. Anyway, I was browsing through that Introduction to Wizarding book you gave me, and I saw a section that mentioned me. I know Hestia said something about me being famous, but am I really as famous as they seem to act like?' _He signed.

_'Yes, Harry, I think that you are one of the most famous wizards in history, aside from some like Merlin, or the Four Founders of Hogwarts.'_

_'But why? Why am I so famous for something like surviving while my parents died?'_

_'It's because when you survived the killing curse, you destroyed the threat of Voldemort. He was one of the most terrible evil wizards that anyone can remember, and while I'm sure there were worse than him, it happened so recently that that is what stuck in their minds.'_ She paused and then asked a question she had wondered for a long time. _'Harry, do you remember anything about what happened that night?'_

Harry was silent for a moment, petting Blackie on the head before he answered. "No, not really. I've 'ad dreams of my parents that seemed very real, but the earliest thing I can remember without dreams, is a really bright green light fillin' my eyes. That's the only thing I can think of 'bout as being that night." He said quietly, looking down. "I-I'd rather not talk 'bout it if that's alright."

Hermione's eyes widened, feeling angry and disgusted with herself that she'd brought that up so carelessly just because it had been something she had wondered. She touched his hand to get his attention. "O-of course we don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I'm so sorry for bringing that up, Harry. Oh, I'm such a horrible friend." She said, looking away.

"F-friend?" Harry asked softly. "We're … I mean… are we friends?"

Hermione looked back quickly. "Of course we're friends Harry, that is… unless… unless you don't want to be." Hermione said, beginning to feel the familiar self-doubt and inadequacy that she had once felt quite often, although it had begun to slowly fade after her friendship began with Luna and Susan.

"I do!" Harry exclaimed quickly. "I jus' didn't know if you'd want to be friends with _me_. Besides Blackie 'ere, I've only really 'ad one friend, and she was more like a big sister. Do you really want t'be friends with me?"

"Of course Harry, I really like you and want us to be friends. I… I really haven't had many friends either so I know how that feels. So… friends?" She asked with a smile, sticking out her hand.

"Friends." He said, shaking her hand firmly, a large grin on his face.

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Hestia Portkeyed to the Granger house shortly after nine o'clock after she had talked privately with some of the others at the meeting who had more questions, and they were all ready to go shopping within a half hour.

Emma had talked Harry into leaving Blackie behind while they shopped, but everyone else was now gathered around a Portkey that would take them to a warded alley that was the common Portkey point for those going to Diagon Alley. With a flash and pulling sensation, they were again transported by the Portkey, this time Emma, Hermione, and Harry tripped over Hestia, causing all four of them to fall to the ground upon landing in the alley.

After helping each other up and brushing themselves off, they exited the alley which had a compulsion charm on it to make most Muggles want to look away from it. When Emma had accepted the job, Professor Flitwick had cast a complex charm that allowed her to see things as if she were a wizard. He had invented the charm years before, and it required a special counterspell to remove it, one that only he and a few others knew, as a simple _Finite Incantatem_ could not break the enchantments of the charm.

They walked down the street until they reached the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. Harry stopped in his tracks, looking up at the sign. "No way." He said.

"What's wrong, Harry?" asked Hermione.

"_This_ is where we're goin' to get t'Diagon Alley?" He asked her.

"Yes, Harry, it's pretty much the only way to get in, why?"

"I usually walk right past this Leaky Cauldron place ev'ry few weeks to go to the library down th'street. I've seen this place a bunch of times." Harry said, shaking his head in disbelief that he had been that close to the Wizarding world and hadn't even known it.

They entered the shabby-looking inn, and the first thing Harry was a bar on one side of a large room, with a large part of the room outside the bar set up as a dining area. Hestia said something in greeting to a bald, toothless man, who nodded in greeting to all of them. Harry saw several old women sitting at the bar, drinking from various glasses while one of them was smoking a long pipe. Sitting at one of the tables was a group of bearded wizards that seemed to be reading and discussing a magazine titled _Transfiguration Today_.

Hestia led them to a back door that opened to a small, walled courtyard that contained nothing except a dustbin and some weeds. She walked up to the wall, and tapped a specific brick three times with her wand. A small hole appeared in the middle of the brick, and it grew wider and wider until it formed a large archway onto a twisting and turning cobbled street.

As they walked down the street, Harry began to see shops on either side of the path. One of the first was a shop selling all sorts of cauldrons, with a stack of them sitting outside the shop. To the right there was a shop called The Apothecary that seemed to sell all sorts of ingredients for potions. A smell like that of bad eggs and rotten cabbage drifted through the doorway as they passed. Emma turned to him. _'We're going to the wizard bank first.' _

Harry nodded and kept looking around, taking in as much as he could, nearly overwhelmed by all of the sights and smells of the crowded alley. There was a store that sold supplies for something called Quidditch, a place that sold owls, and even and ice cream parlor. Finally he saw a tall, imposing building constructed of white marble. Carved into the marble in large letters were the words "Gringotts Bank".

A short, dark-skinned creature stood guard at the burnished bronze front doors, dressed in a scarlet and gold uniform. Hermione had told him that the bank was run by goblins, so he assumed that short man-like creature was one of them. They passed through the front door into an entrance chamber with a set of silver doors. Two more goblins stood guard here, and they opened the door to let them pass into the main hall. Inside was a long counter with hundreds of goblins, sitting on high stools, working hard at counting and weighing coins, writing in ledger books, and examining precious gems.

Hestia walked up to one of the goblins that was writing in a large ledger. "We'd like to get some assistance with procuring a replacement key. Could we speak in private with someone who could help us?" The goblin looked up briefly turned to another goblin, and made several hand gestures, which that goblin repeated to the next and so on. The movement caught Harry's attention and he watched as the gestures continued across the room. He nudged Hermione as a goblin came out of a side room and walked toward them. She looked over to him and he whispered to her, "Did you see that? They used sign language. All over the room they're signing to each other."

Hermione glanced around, paying attention to the goblins, and realied that Harry was right. Her rational mind kicked in, and she realised sign language would be a valuable skill to pass message along in crowded and noisy areas like the main hall of Gringotts. She nodded back to Harry and was about to say something, but at that moment, the goblin reached them. "This way, please." He said, leading them into the side room that he had just exited. He motioned for them to be seated in the small boardroom. "My name is Raghock, how may I be of assistance?"

"Mister Raghock, this young man is Harry Potter, and he needs to have a new key made for him to access his vault." Raghock's eyes widened when he heard Harry's name. "Very well, it is good to finally have you visit this bank, Mr. Potter. We must, however, verify your identity."

Harry nodded in acceptance, and then decided to confirm his suspicions by signing to Raghock_. 'How will you verify it, sir?'_ Raghock rocked back in his chair and a laugh escaped him. He smiled at Harry, showing no teeth. _'Well, my boy, it has been quite a while since I've met such a young wizard who knows how to sign. As to your question, I will need a drop of your blood on this parchment to verify who you are.' _Raghock signed back, passing over a yellowed parchment and a small knife.

'_My friends Hermione and Emma here know sign language as well.'_ Harry signed.

Raghock looked over at the two appraisingly before nodding to them. _'It is nice to know some wizards can learn such an archaic language.'_ He signed. _'I believe the last wizard I met who learned sign language was Raistlin the Deaf, who died bout five years ago.'_

Emma was the one who responded to his comment. _'Well, in the Muggle world, deafness is much more common and much less treatable. My mother was deaf, and I learned to sign at the same time she did, and I taught my daughter to sign.'_

Harry picked up the knife, pricked his thumb with it, and allowed a drop of blood to fall on the paper. The parchment began to glow with a bright white light, and when it faded, a family genealogy appeared on it with his own name in large bold letters.

Raghock looked the parchment over and then placed it into a small box which he tapped twice with his finger. When he opened the box up, a small, gold key had appeared, which he took out and handed to Harry. _'Your trust account is in vault number 687. I will call one of my best assistants to take you to the vault.'_

He left the room and came back a minute later with a goblin who had a bald head, pointed nose, and pointed ears who was introduced as Griphook. They were taken to a long stone corridor that slanted downward. Griphook got them to sit on a small cart, which he piloted down a set of narrow tracks. After a fast twisting ride, they reached a door numbered 687.

Harry gave his key to Griphook who turned it in the keyhole and pushed the large door open. Inside was a sight like nothing Harry had ever dreamed. There were stacks and stacks of hundreds and hundreds of gold coins, as well as stacks of other coins made of silver and bronze. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Hestia, Emma, and Hermione who had come in behind him also stopped and stared slack-jawed at the room.

Griphook, obviously sensing Harry had never been here before moved in front of him. "Mister Potter, these gold coins are called Galleons, each coin is worth about five pounds in Muggle money. The silver coins are called Sickles, and there are seventeen Sickles to every one galleon. The bronze coins are called Knuts, and there are twenty-three Knuts to every Sickle. You can take however much you like, you can use the pouches by the door to carry your money. The pouches have been charmed to be nearly weightless and hold five times their volume." Having explained it, Griphook left the vault and went to the cart to wait.

Harry ended up putting several fistfuls of the Galleons in one of the bags after asking Hestia bout how much everything would cost. He tied the pouch shut, and they walked back to the cart. After another wild ride, they thanked Griphook and soon were back in the alley. The first place they went was a store that sold trunks. Harry ended up buying a large trunk with wheels and a handle that had been charmed to be lightweight and to store nearly ten times its size.

The next thing they purchased was a cauldron, something that was apparently required for a class called Potions. After getting the cauldron they went to the Apothecary and bought all of the ingredients needed for First through Third-Year Potions. Their third stop was in a stationery shop to buy a bunch of parchment, several bottles of ink, an inkwell, and a set of eagle feather quills with some enchanted with the Easy Notes charm that Harry liked the appearance of.

They next went to a place called Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions to get some robes for him. Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch who wore mauve robes. She took measurements of Harry, and within a few minutes, she had several sets of black school robes as well as a winter cloak, a pointed hat, and a set of protective gloves. He paid for the clothing and they left the shop.

Their next stop was a large building next door that housed a bookstore called Flourish & Blotts. Harry's eyes lit up when he saw the bookstore, and the next two hours were spent in the bookstore, with Emma waiting most of the time outside for the three book lovers to finish their shopping. With Hermione's help, Harry purchase all of the textbooks that had been used between First year and the present year. She also got him to buy the textbooks for two of the elective classes that she thought he might like: Ancient Runes and Arithmancy. He agreed to look them over before deciding all of his classes.

Besides the textbooks, he got informational books about the Wizarding world and different traditions throughout it, as well as several fiction novels that were apparently popular in the Wizarding world. They eventually checked out and headed to a café for lunch, and then ate at the ice cream parlor owned by a wizard named Florean Fortescue, for their dessert.

After lunch, as they were walking toward the wand shop, they passed a store called Eeylops Owl Emporium. It seemed to Harry as if something was pulling him toward that shop, making him want to buy an owl. He had been fascinated with what Hermione had told him about owls, how they were used to deliver post and often could become familiars. "If I get an owl, can I take it to 'ogwarts along with Blackie?" He asked.

Hestia nodded. "I checked up on the official rules, and you can have an owl as your familiar and you can still take along a pet, so you could bring Blackie as well as an owl."

When Harry entered the shop, he saw rows upon rows of cages holding owls of nearly every shape, size, and color. Harry followed the pull to the back of the shop, passing the man he believed to be the owner of the store. The others followed behind him, and the owner came along as well, probably to ask if he could help them. The feeling led Harry to a large cage along the back wall. Inside the cage was one of the most beautiful creatures he had ever seen. It was a large snowy owl, with nearly all-white feathers sitting regally on its perch.

The store owner, who came up behind everyone, panicked when Harry reached out to the cage. "No, don't put your hands near the cage! She doesn't like…" The man trailed off when the owl looked intently at Harry's hand which he had stuck inside the cage, and then playfully butted his hand with her head and gently nibbled on his fingers. "Well I'll be!" The man exclaimed. "I've had that owl here for almost three years now, and she's always nipped and scratched at anyone who wanted to do anything other than give her food."

Harry turned around and noticed the shopkeeper. "This 'ere is the owl I want t'buy." He said.

"Oh, of course," the man said, appearing to be happy to be rid of the owl. He grabbed the handle of the cage and carried the owl over to his counter.

Harry quickly paid for the owl, and Emma grabbed the cage for him while he pulled along his trunk. _'So, Harry, do you know what you are going to name her?'_ Hermione signed in question.

'_I'm not sure yet, I'll have to think about it.'_ Harry signed in reply.

Their final stop in Diagon Alley was at Ollivander's to get Harry a wand. They entered the narrow, shabby looking shop, and what struck Harry first was that the walls were lined from floor to ceiling with what had to be thousands of small boxes. A short old man with eerie, moon-like eyes emerged from behind a stack of the boxes.

He smiled in greeting. "Ah, Miss Hermione Granger, Vine Wood, Dragon heartstring core, ten-and-a-half inches, if I remember correctly. Nice to see you again as well, Mrs. Granger. Miss Jones, I haven't seen you in here for years! I recall you have a willow wand, eleven-and-a-half inches, with a Hippogriff talon core."

He looked next to Harry. He studied him for several moments before saying, "Well now, you must be Harry Potter. I assume your scar is hidden by your hair, very good idea. I had hoped to meet you a few years ago, but it is very wonderful to see you alive and well. I remember your parents quite well. Your father had an eleven-inch mahogany wand, quite pliable and excellent for transfiguration. Your mother's wand was willow, ten-and-a-quarter inches, swishy and very good for charms work."

Harry was silent as yet another person told him how they had known his parents. Ollivander continued to speak. "Now, which hand is your wand hand?" He asked

"Um, I can use both about the same. I guess my right 'and is a little better though." Harry replied.

Ollivander nodded and began to open up boxes and make Harry hold different wands to try to find a match. Nearly twenty minutes later they had gone through most of the boxes. "I wonder." Ollivander said to himself. He went over to a particular box and brought it back and allowed Harry to pick up the wand which Ollivander said was an 11 inch holly wand with a phoenix feather core. Something that sounded like a loud clap of thunder filled the room and a blinding set of sparks erupted from the wand, causing it to jerk back and nearly fly out of his hand.

Ollivander quickly grabbed it out of his hand, looking at Harry in amazement. "Oh my, I believe we found the correct wand, but it seems I must make some adjustments. You are the second person I will ever have had to do that for." He scuttled off to an unseen room and came back fifteen minutes later.

"I had to shorten this wand down to ten inches for you, my boy. Wand length has to do with the amount of concentration needed to focus your magic. The shorter the wand, the less concentration needed. That big flash showed me that you were overwhelming the wand's focusing core, so it needed to be reduced in size. Here, try it now."

Harry grabbed the wand, and this time a smaller amount of sparks flew from the wand. "Curious, how very curious." Ollivander muttered.

"What's curious, sir?" Harry asked.

"The phoenix feather core of your wand is very unique. The phoenix I obtained it from gave only one other feather and the wand that contained it gave you that scar you are hiding."

"R-really? The other feather is in that Vold'mort guy that killed my parents?" Harry asked.

Ollivander nodded. "I believe we can expect great things from you, Harry. Voldemort himself did many great things. Terrible, but great."

They left the store after Hestia asked Ollivander to sell Harry a wand holster that could be strapped to his arm. When a certain gesture was made with the user's hand, the wand would slide out and land directly in that hand.

Having finished shopping in Diagon Alley, they left via the Leaky Cauldron, and spend the next few hours in Muggle London with the exhausting task of trying on and buying a wardrobe of new clothes for Harry to wear.

A very worn out group Portkeyed back to the Granger's house at five o'clock, greeted by the wagging tail of Blackie. _'Harry, we need to pack all of your things into your trunk. I figured we would go to Hogwarts tonight, and eat dinner and spend the night there.'_ Emma signed to him.

'_All right.'_ Harry signed, looking excited to see more of the magical world. He quickly packed everything he had brought from the apartment, and was soon sitting in the living room, waiting for everyone else to get ready.

Hermione sat down across from him on one of the reclining chairs. _'Have you decided on a name yet?' _She asked.

Harry nodded. _'I think I'll name her Hedwig. I found that name in a book about medieval saints a few months ago and I thought it was interesting.'_ He looked over to Hedwig who was sitting in her cage, watching him. "What d'you think of the name Hedwig, girl?" She looked as if she was thinking it over for a few minutes before she bobbed her head and gave a soft hoot of approval.

He and Hermione laughed at how human her action seemed. Harry's mind slowly turned to the coming trip to Hogwarts, imagining the things he had read about, and wondering what it would really be like as well as what he would say when he met the friend of his parents named Remus which the paper had talked about.

AN: Well, Harry now has his wand, and of course Hedwig (my favorite non-human character), and is getting ready to go to Hogwarts for the first time.

Next chapter: First impressions of Hogwarts, meeting Remus and Minerva, and probably the first meeting of Harry and Dumbledore.

Again, I am very sorry for the long wait, and thank you for your patience. Please read and review.


	6. Chapter 5: Hogwarts

Disclaimer: It's JKR's, not mine. All of the characters, settings, and ideas from the books belong to JK Rowling. I have never, and will never profit from these writings. The only things that are mine are the parts of the plot differing from the books, any original characters, and the characterization of Hermione's parents.

Key: Sentences in italics and single quotes indicate sign language. _'Sort of like this'_

Chapter 5: Hogwarts

_Granger Residence, North London – Saturday, 1 January, 1994_

Once Hestia and Emma were ready to leave, Hestia helped Harry release Hedwig and instruct her to fly and meet them, because, she had explained, "Birds of any type hate Portkey travel, unlike most other animals. It has something to do with their internal balance that lets them know where to go for things like migrations, or in her case, deliveries. Being taken from one place to another upsets their balance, and often they have trouble even flying in a strait line the first day, and it usually takes a week for them to totally adjust."

Once Hedwig had flown out the window Hestia had opened, Emma took out her two-way Portkey, and had everyone grab onto it. Once again Hestia held onto Blackie, while Hermione held onto Hedwig's cage. Harry grabbed one handle of his trunk, and Emma took the other so it wouldn't swing around wildly during the trip.

He felt the now-familiar tugging sensation behind his navel, and then landed hard on a floor made up of large blue-grey stones. Hermione landed rather firmly on her backside, and Emma had the unfortunate experience of the trunk landing on her foot. Harry managed to stay on his feet this time, albeit in a low crouch. As Emma rubbed her now-sore foot, Harry extended a hand to Hermione and helped her stand up.

As Harry looked around, he saw that they had landed in a large, cavernous room with walls made of stones similar to the ones the floor consisted of. There was a high ceiling, so high that he could barely see it. The room was lit by large torches that were held in sconces along the walls. On one side were double oak doors, which he assumed were the front doors. A wide marble staircase stood opposite to the entrance doors, with a wooden door on either side of it. There were several other doors along each wall, all of them closed. In the corner near the staircase were four giant hourglasses. Each hourglass was filled with varying amounts of gems in the upper and lower portions. Harry could see they were red, green, blue, and yellow gemstones. To his right, he could see double doors that were slightly open, enough to glimpse a long table inside.

Hermione picked up Hedwig's cage, and once Harry had grabbed one end of his trunk so he could pull it on its wheels, Hermione signed to him. _'Harry, come on, I want to show you the Great Hall.'_

She grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the partially open doors. Harry suppressed his first impulse to jerk his hand away, not used to very much contact besides the occasional hug or kiss on the forehead he had received from Amy, and let Hermione pull him along.

Hermione pushed the door open further, allowing Harry a full view of the room as she again pulled him, this time inside the room. The Great Hall was much larger than the entrance hall, which seemed almost impossible to Harry. Four long wooden tables were placed in the center of the room, and a shorter table sat at the head of the others. Hundreds of candles floated above the tables, providing illumination for the room. Harry immediately looked up at the ceiling which, he had read, was enchanted to show the sky outside. He could see the now darkening sky outside as the sun finished setting. While he had read some about everything in the Great Hall, it was much more spectacular seeing the real thing.

"Wow," was the only thing Harry could say. Hermione looked at him, smiling. _'This is the Great Hall. This is where we have all of our meals. That smaller table up there is where my mum and all the other professors sit during meals. Each of the other tables is for each house. The first one is for Slytherin, the second for Ravenclaw, the third for Hufflepuff, and the last one is for Gryffindor, which is my house.'_ She signed to him.

Harry and Hermione had taken to finger-spelling the first four or five letters of each house, as it was quite tedious to spell each one out every time. They had looked around at Flourish and Botts for a book or dictionary for Wizarding sign language, but had not found anything. When Hermione talked to the clerk, she found out that the latest sign language book had gone out of print forty years ago, and it would have to be specially ordered from a used book store in the Wizarding section of Wales, so Harry had placed an order for it and it was supposed to arrive by owl in a few days. He suggested that she might also find some at the Hogwarts library, and she was planning to search once they were settled in.

Emma and Hestia came up behind the two, waiting a moment for Harry to take in the huge room. Emma gained his attention and signed, _'Harry, you will be staying in my quarters for the first few nights until we get a bed and everything set up for you, and we won't be able to do that until you've been Sorted into a house. Why don't we put your things up in my quarters, and then we can show you around the castle some more and introduce you to a few people.'_

Harry quickly agreed, and let them lead him back into the hallway and toward the main marble staircase to the first floor. Hestia turned to help Harry take his trunk up the stairs, only to see him focusing intently on it. The trunk slowly rose into the air, and he grabbed the handle and directed it up the stairs as he went. Emma was also watching him, amazed once again at the wandless magic he could do. Hermione looked on thoughtfully, making a mental note to work in some wandless magic practice time into the tutoring schedule she was making for Harry.

They went up several staircases up to the fourth floor. Emma took them down the corridor to the right and stopped in front of a portrait of a painting of a tree-covered landscape. To Harry's amazement, he could see birds and other animals actually moving inside the portrait. Glancing around, he saw two more portraits, both with moving subjects. "The portraits move?" He asked in disbelief.

Hermione nodded, _'Yes, most portraits in Hogwarts are magical, and the ones with portraits of people actually act like real people. This portrait is the entrance to my mum's quarters. There is a password to get it open, which is 'Einstein'.'_ She said, finger spelling the word.

He had read quite a bit about Albert Einstein, so he knew how to pronounce it. Immediately after Hermione spoke the password, the portrait as well as a portion of the wall behind it swung open, revealing a large living room with a couch, several armchairs, an end table, and a fireplace.

Hermione set Hedwig's cage on the end table, and Emma turned to Harry. _'You can sleep in here on the couch. I'll get Hestia to transfigure it into a bed later for you to sleep on.' _ She signed.

Harry pulled his trunk over next to the couch, and relaxed his concentration, allowing it to float back to the ground. He looked back to the three women, and Emma signed to him, _'Hermione and I will give you a really brief tour of the castle, while Hestia let's everyone know we're here.'_

Hestia turned to leave, saying, "I'll tell Minerva and Remus that we're here. I won't tell Dumbledore until after they've had a chance to talk to Harry. I'll meet you in the staff room."

After Hestia left, Emma and Hermione spent the next twenty minutes showing Harry around to different portions of the Castle, while Blackie stayed in the room. He noticed hundreds more of the moving portraits, as well as many tapestries along the wall. They walked past several suits of armor that looked like they were about to move around. When Harry focused on them, he saw some colour surrounding them, but nothing close to the colour of the wizards he had seen so far. He had also noticed that even the walls of the castle seemed to glow in different colours, leading him to believe that the entire castle was imbued with magic, probably from the years and years of young wizards being taught inside. There were moving staircases all around the school, as well as some corridors hidden behind tapestries or statues, which Hermione showed him.

The place that impressed him the most, however, was the library. They went there last, and he realised it was on the same floor as Emma's quarters. Upon entering he was overwhelmed with the sight of the hundreds of towering bookshelves. As he looked down the long row of shelves, he realised there must be tens of thousands of books in the Library. He grinned to himself: he was going to like it here. They let him walk down a few rows of shelves, before Emma said it was time to go. On the way out he saw a desk near the door which appeared to be the Librarian's desk, although no one else was in the library at the moment.

Hermione and Emma led him back down the stairs towards the Great Hall. As they descended the main marble staircase, they were met by a stern-looking older woman who had black hair pulled up into a bun, and wore square glasses and emerald green robes. Hermione signed quickly to him, telling him that the woman was a Professor named McGonnagal.

Minerva found herself unable to move once she saw Harry. She was immediately struck by how much he looked like a blending of James and Lily. Her eyes teared up as she looked at the malnourished look he had. She finally got her voice to work. Looking directly at him, she said, "Hello, Harry. My name is Minerva McGonnagal. I once taught both of your parents when they went to school here, and became good friends with your mother after she graduated." She paused, and took a breath and spoke with a fond smile. "You look so much like them, Harry. You have your father's hair and chin, but your eyes and your nose look just like your mother's."

She took a step towards him, and spoke again. "I-I'm so sorry for not doing more to keep you, Harry. I tried everything I could to stop your placement with those monsters."

Harry was able to make out most of what she said, and he responded. "It's alright, Mrs. McGonnagal, Hestia explained everythin' t'me. She said that a bunch of you tried to keep me outta there, but the bloke who put me with them was sorta th'most famous wizard in the country, so you couldn't win against what 'e wanted. I'm not angry at any of you."

Minerva felt relief at his words, and she felt some of the guilt that had been weighing down on her over the last three years lift from her shoulders. "Thank you, Harry." She paused again. "There is someone downstairs who really wants to meet you. His name is Remus Lupin. He was very close friends with your father, and fought very hard to keep you. He's been searching for you constantly ever since we discovered you were gone. He'll be very happy to see you in person."

Remus stopped pacing back and forth in the staff room as he heard the door open. Hestia looked up, motioning for someone to come in. Remus' mind froze up for an instant as Harry came through the door. He took in Harry's appearance, noting he seemed short for his age, especially when Lily and James had both been rather tall. He realised it was probably from malnutrition, and living on the streets. There were several scars on his face, but the first thing Remus noticed were his bright green eyes, almost exactly like Lily's if not more colourful.

He saw Harry smile at Hestia, and when Harry noticed him, he realised, the smile did not diminish. Harry took a hesitant step forward and held out his hand. "'ello, you must be Remus."

That broke Remus out of his frozen state of mind. He reached out and shook his hand firmly, smiling. "Yes, Harry, I'm Remus. I'm so glad we've finally found you."

"They said you've been lookin' for me all the time since you found out I was gone. Why did you do somethin' like that just for me?" He asked tentatively.

"Harry, your father was my best friend. I tried as hard as I could to get custody of you, and failed. I had to search for you when you went missing, because it was my fault I couldn't keep you from the Dursleys. I-I'm so sorry for what you've gone through."

"I already told that McGonagall lady I wasn't mad at any of you, it wasn't any of your faults."

Remus felt tears in his eyes and managed to say, "Thank you, Harry, but I still blame myself some, I just can't help it." He hesitated. "Harry, would you mind if I gave you a hug?"

Now Harry hesitated, before nodding. Remus stepped forward, and pulled Harry into a firm hug, feeling Harry tense slightly at first contact. He finally let his own tension drain from himself as his mind now fully accepted that Harry had actually been found. A strange feeling passed through him, and an image of Sirius passed through his mind, but he shook off the feeling, figuring it was some sort of flashback that had come due to seeing Harry again.

He finally pulled away so he could look at Harry's face, far enough away so Harry could read his lips. "Harry, I want you to know that if you ever have a question about your parents or anything like that, all you have to do is ask me."

Harry looked at him hesitantly, before asking, "What were their names?"

Remus found himself caught off-guard for a moment, not fully comprehending what he was asking. "W-what?"

"My mum and dad… what were their names? No one ever told me."

Remus looked shocked for a moment, before realizing the Dursleys probably didn't tell him anything about them. He smiled gently at Harry. "Your mum's name was Lily, and your dad's name was James."

Harry's eyes became distant. "Lily and James…" He whispered. His attention snapped back to Remus. "Did my mum 'ave red 'air and green eyes? I've 'ad some dreams 'bout a woman who looked like that, and always thought she was my mum."

Remus smiled. "Yes, Harry, your mum had red hair, and her eyes looked exactly like yours do."

Harry nodded. "I thought that it was 'er. I've dreamt about 'er, my dad, and some other people, too. I think they're memories or somethin'."

"I think that is very possible. Some people dream about things that they normally don't remember while they are awake. That is especially true for wizards like you and I."

Remus paused for a moment before tentatively saying, "Harry, it is very likely that I will become your legal guardian by this summer. I won't force you to accept me as your guardian if you do not want me to be, so I'd like us to get to know each other better over this school term, and you can choose if you'd like to live with me once you learn everything about me."

Harry looked confused. "O-okay, I'd like to get to know you but… 'ow can you be my guardian now, but you couldn't back then?"

Remus smiled sadly. "There were certain things that prevented me from being your guardian, which I'll tell you about as we get to know each other. Right now, with everything that happened and how I fought to keep you the first time, I don't think anyone will even think of trying to deny me it."

Remus gestured for Harry to sit in one of the chairs of the staff room, while he took a seat himself. "I'm sure Hestia, Emma, and Hermione have already told you a lot about Hogwarts. I'll be tutoring you through the year to get you caught up with the other third year students. I think we'll let you go to all of the normal classes that first and second year students go through. Usually third year students choose two or more elective classes. I think it would be best for you if you went to each class once or twice to see what you like, and I can work with you over the summer to help you learn the material."

"Hestia has been telling me she thinks you are very intelligent, so I don't think you'll have a problem catching up," Remus said, smiling when Harry's cheeks turned pink as he glanced quickly at Hestia and Emma.

"Hestia also tells me you're already quite the wizard. Could I see you do some magic?" Remus asked.

"A-alright," Harry said, looking unsure of himself. He extended a hand toward one of the unoccupied chairs and narrowed his eyes. The chair trembled for a moment, and then floated into the air. Moving his hand around, Harry directed the chair to float around the room and settle back in its place.

Remus smiled widely. "Harry, that's the most impressive thing I've seen for someone your age. Most adult wizards couldn't do that, even using a piece of paper instead of a chair. Now I'm sure you won't have a problem learning everything."

"I'm sure you'll also get a lot of help from Hermione here. Learn everything you can from her, she's the brightest witch I've met since your mother." Remus said, gesturing to Hermione.

Harry looked over and saw Hermione blushing furiously. She signed to him. _'I'm making up a study schedule for you, if you'd like to study with me.'_

Harry nodded quickly, looking back to see Remus' reaction to her using sign language. Remus smiled reassuringly. "Hestia already told me that you have lost your hearing. After she told me I looked up everything I could about deafness in wizards. Depending on the cause, there is a chance that with magic you could get your hearing back."

When Harry looked at him with wide eyes, he held up his hand. "I don't want to get your hopes up because I can't promise anything. I thought maybe we can go now to see the school healer, Madam Pomfrey. She'll be able to examine you and probably figure it out." He paused before hesitantly saying, "She can probably give you something to get rid of scars or at least lessen their appearance if you would like that."

Harry nodded slowly. "I think I'd like that. But I don't want her to get rid of the ones on my face all th'way. I sort of like them."

Remus stood from his chair. "Well, let's go to the hospital wing. I told her you would be coming here today, so she's probably waiting for us."

He led Harry out of the room, the women following. They went up the main staircase to the first floor and down the hallway to the right. They passed several doors, one of which was open enough for Harry to see rows of desks. They finally reached two wooden doors, which Remus knocked on. He apparently was answered, because he opened the door a few moments later.

The first thing Harry saw when he entered the room was that there several rows of beds covered with white sheets. By each bed were privacy screens that could be put up around the bed. To the left there was an open door to what looked like an office. A middle-aged woman with brown hair that was pulled back into a bun, was stepping out of the office. She had a stern expression on her face, but her eyes seemed to radiate kindness.

She walked toward them, greeting them. She walked up to Harry and said, "Hello, Mister Potter, I am Poppy Pomfrey. Seeing you here brings back memories of the many times your father got himself sent here, either to get a hex reversed, or to clean out bedpans for detention. He was quite the trouble-maker." She cast an eye over Remus, who was grinning. "I seem to remember you were in here often, although not as often as James and …"

She stopped, her eyes darkening a moment before she changed the subject. "Well, let's get you checked out, Mister Potter." She led him over to a bed and had him sit on it. "I'll need you to remove your shirt so my diagnostic spells work better. It is very common to have walking pneumonia and not even know it, especially since you've been living in the streets."

Harry looked around uncomfortably at everyone else, especially Hermione, who he believed had already seen some of his scars on his back. Madam Pomfrey noticed his look, and quickly shooed the four out of the way so she could pull up the privacy screen around his bed. She remained inside the now-cordoned off area, looking expectantly at him. When he still made no move to remove his shirt, her face softened, and she said, "Mister Po… Harry, I really need to examine you with your shirt off. I've heard what happened to you. You don't have anything to be ashamed of."

Harry slowly began to pull off his shirt, but paused to say, "Please don't let the others in 'ere to see me." When she nodded in understanding, he removed the shirt. She took out her wand, and began casting several diagnostic spells. She frowned when they showed various fractured bones that had never fully healed, as well as the pneumonia she had suggested, and some serious malnutrition. She caught a glimpse of his heavily scarred back, and stifled a gasp.

Having finished a cursory examination, she stepped over to the bedside table which held several bottles of liquid. She grabbed one and turned back to Harry. "Harry, I believe I can help lessen the appearance of your scars. I probably won't be able to get rid of them completely, but they will be less noticeable. Would you like that?" At his nod, she spoke again. "You have several fractured bones, as well as pneumonia. For me to treat you properly and examine your loss of hearing, I will need you to take this potion, as the treatment will be rather painful. It will put you to sleep for about thirty minutes while I work on you."

"Alright." Harry said, taking the bottle from her. He glanced suspiciously at the liquid before downing it in one gulp. He almost gagged at the foul taste of the potion, but almost immediately he began to feel his eyelids droop. He felt Madam Pomfrey remove his glasses and help him to lie on the bed before he fell into a deep sleep.

Nearly twenty minutes later, Poppy stepped out from behind the curtains to where Emma, Hestia, Remus, and Hermione were waiting, sitting on the hospital beds. The first thing Remus noticed was that here eyes were puffy and pink, and she had dried tear-tracks on her cheeks. She wore a tired expression as she walked toward them, wiping her face quickly with her robes.

He was even more startled when he saw her normally kind and expressive eyes now had a haunted look to them. There were still tears in her eyes when she suddenly said, "That bastard! T-that sick bastard!"

Remus jerked back in surprise, having never heard Poppy curse the whole time he had known her. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Emma's eyes widen as well, and heard Hermione gasp. "W-what is it, Poppy?" He asked uncertainly.

"That… that **_thing!_** I know you told me Harry had been beaten by him, but I have never seen anything as bad as that. His entire back is covered in scars. I've lessened their appearance some, but the scar tissues are so thick, I don't think I could ever remove them completely."

Hermione spoke up at this point. "I-I saw his back this morning. He had just taken a shower and was putting on his shirt when I came into his room. It was just horrible, mum! I can't believe anyone could do that to him." She said, tears in her own eyes.

"Can… can I see him?" Remus asked tentatively.

Poppy shook her head. "I'm sorry, Remus, you'll have to wait until he's awake. He made me promise not to let any of you in to see him. He seems rather ashamed of his scars. We'll wait a few minutes until he's awake and then I'll tell all of you what I have done."

Several minutes later, Harry slowly began to wake up. He opened his eyes and saw the blurry face of Madam Pomfrey. He squinted and felt around for his glasses, before she handed them to him and let him put them on. He sat up, feeling the best that he had in a long time.

"Harry, I've been able to lessen the appearance of the scars on your back, but I cannot remove them. I figured you would like to take a look before I let Remus and the others in." She said, handing him a mirror.

He took the mirror from her, and held it behind himself, looking over his shoulder at the mirror. He still saw the pink and white scars, but they were much less deep and thick. As he was handing the mirror back, he caught a look at his face. The two scars had faded quite a bit, although they were still visible as thin white lines.

He pulled on his shirt before Madam Pomfrey opened the privacy curtains, allowing everyone to come in.

_'How are you feeling, Harry?'_ Hermione signed in question to him.

_'Best I've felt for a long time.'_ He signed back to her.

Remus pulled over some chairs for them all to sit on. Madam Pomfrey began by saying, "Well, Harry, I had to mend several fractured bones, and treat you for pneumonia." She gestured to a potion on the bedside table. "You have quite a case of malnutrition, and we will fix that by having you take this potion every morning. It will help to maximise the amount of nutrients you use from the things you eat."

She talked about how she had worked on his scars, and had grown him some new teeth for several of his which had developed severe cavities. Finally she got to the part that he had been waiting for. "I also examined your loss of hearing. When did you lose it, Harry?"

"Um, 'bout four years ago. I got really sick and Amy took me to the 'ospital. They couldn't find anything wrong with me and sent me back with Amy. I fell asleep for several days, and when I woke up, I couldn't 'ear anymore."

Poppy nodded. "That's what I suspected. I found evidence that you went through something that is commonly called 'Wizard's Meningitis'. The Muggle form is a sort of infection that inflamed tissues around the brain. The Wizard form is much nastier, and can cause more harm. I'm amazed you survive it without being treated by a healer."

"In most cases, damage to the inner ear causes deafness, and that is normally treatable by magic using an implanted device. With you, the meningitis seems to have totally destroyed your auditory nerves, which are little nerves that carry signals from your ears to your brain. Unfortunately, I do not think there is much that can be done to restore your hearing. I'm going to set up an appointment for you with a specialist from a Wizarding hospital called St. Mungo's, just in case she can do something, but I don't think she will. I'm very sorry, Harry." Madam Pomfrey said, looking sadly at him.

Harry shrugged, but his expression showed his disappointment. "That's okay, Madam Pomfrey, you tried. Besides, if you guys 'adn't found me, I'd never even known there was a chance to 'ear again. I've just accepted that this is just the way I am, and there's nothing wrong with bein' deaf."

_Headmaster's Office, Hogwarts Castle – Saturday, 1 January, 1994_

Remus entered the office as Dumbledore answered his knock. Dumbledore was seated behind his desk, and Remus sat down in one of the chairs across from him.

"I'm sure you already know that Harry is here." He said, stating, not questioning the fact.

"Yes, the wards indicated the Portkey travel, and my sensors detected his magic. I decided to wait to give you time to meet him. I would like to talk with him myself now."

Remus shook his head quickly. "Wait until tomorrow, Albus. He's already had an overwhelming day going to Diagon Alley, and then coming here and meeting Minerva and me. I also took him to see Poppy."

Albus nodded wearily, knowing that that would be the best he would get from Remus. "Alright, I will talk with him tomorrow. I'll get the house elves to bring my dinner up here so you can eat in the Great Hall with Harry tonight. What did Poppy say?"

Remus sighed, pondering how much to tell him. "I've never seen her so angry and upset when she saw all of the scars Dursley made. She's treating him for malnutrition and a slight case of pneumonia right now. She doesn't think they will be able to restore his hearing, but she's setting up an appointment at Saint Mungo's for next weekend with a specialist."

Albus frowned. "I'm very sorry to hear that. I will have to make sure all of the staff knows about his disability before he starts classes."

Remus glared. "He isn't disabled. He just perceives things a little differently than you or I. He can handle himself well enough. Just let the professors know that they have to look at him when they speak to him so he can read their lips."

Albus raised his hands in a placating gesture. "Relax, Remus, I wasn't trying to disparage Harry. I'll make sure I tell them what you asked."

Albus paused and then said, "I'd like to talk with Harry before lunchtime tomorrow, Remus. Whenever you think he is ready, please bring him to my office. I'll be in all morning before I have to get things ready for the feast tomorrow, along with the Sorting for Harry."

Remus nodded sharply. "You'll be able to talk with him in the morning. I should go now. I'd like to have some dinner with Harry and the others tonight."

Dumbledore nodded in understanding as Remus stood and began to walk toward the door. "Of course Remus, I'll see you tomorrow."

_Great Hall, Hogwarts Castle – Saturday, 1 January, 1994_

Harry sat back from the table, feeling totally full from the near feast he had just eaten. Their meal had consisted mainly of large amounts of roast beef and jacket potatoes. It had startled him when the plates of food popped out of thin air in front of him, but he realised he was already becoming more accustomed to things happening due to magic, and it didn't surprise him nearly as much as it would have even a day ago.

He finished off his glass of pumpkin juice, a refreshing beverage that Hermione had recommended that he try, looking around at the others who were also finishing. He watched Remus wolf down his last pieces of meat and wipe his mouth.

He was already starting to like the older man, and could even remember his face from bits and pieces of his dreams. Remus seemed like a mix between a good friend and an uncle, a combination Harry liked.

"Remus?" Harry asked softly as Remus finished off his own drink. Harry saw Remus, Hermione, and the others all look at him.

"Yes, Harry?"

"When Madam Pomfrey was talking about you and my dad always ending up in the hospital wing, what was she going to say before she changed the subject?" He asked, posing the question that had been bothering him for a while.

He saw Remus' expression darken slightly. Remus sighed heavily before answering him. "Your father and I were friends with two other classmates. Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black. She was going to say how they always ended up there too."

He moved his chair until it was right next to Harry's. "Harry, your parents were killed after they were betrayed to Voldemort. The man's name was Sirius Black, and he later killed several people including Peter. He was put into prison for a long time, but he escaped this summer. I want you to be careful if you go anywhere off school grounds, because we think he might have escaped to go after you."

Harry tried his best to keep a straight face and not give away what he knew had really happened. "Y'mean that Sirius Black bloke in the papers is a wizard? And why would 'e be after me if ev'ryone knows I've been missin'?"

"I'm not sure he's really after you, but it's better to just be safe. So, you've seen what he looks like in the papers enough to recognise him?" Remus asked.

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I'd know 'im if I saw 'im."

As the others finished eating, Remus spoke again. "Harry, tomorrow morning you'll have to meet with the Headmaster of the school, Albus Dumbledore. I want you to know ahead of time that he was the one who placed you with the Dursleys so you aren't surprised if he brings it up."

Harry nodded slowly. From what he had read about Dumbledore in _Hogwarts, A History_, he had already guessed that he had been the influential and powerful wizard who had given him to the Dursleys. "Okay, " he said, before hesitantly continuing, "could… could you come in there with me? I don't want to talk with 'im alone. I'm afraid I'll get really angry with 'im."

Remus looked surprised at the request while honored at the same time. "Of course I'll go with you, Harry. You don't have to worry about getting angry, because you have every right to be."

Later that evening, Remus had retired to his quarters, Hestia had Portkeyed off to her flat, and Harry, Emma, and Hermione were sitting on the couch of Emma's Professor quarters in front of the blazing fireplace, each reading a book. Harry was reading the _Introduction to the Magical World_ book that Hermione had given him, and was found that it was filled with all sorts of information.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hermione's head snap up as if she had heard something. He followed her gaze to the window, and saw Hedwig on the sill outside, tapping the glass of the window with her beak. Harry set his book down and scrambled over and opened the window. Hedwig flapped in and landed on his shoulder. She nipped affectionately at his ear while he closed the window, and when he held out his arm, she stepped onto that.

Harry smiled, reaching out his free hand and gently pet the soft feathers of her head. " 'lo there, Hedwig. Did you 'ave a nice time flying here?"

Hedwig responded with a small bob of her head and a short hoot. Harry smiled and continued rubbing her head as he sat down on the couch. Hermione and Emma put their books aside and reached out to run their fingers along Hedwig's feathers.

They stayed that way for the next several minutes with Hedwig nearly glowing with the attention they were paying her. Finally, Harry put her in her cage, and they began to prepare to go to sleep. Hermione took out her wand and said an incantation while pointing it at the couch. The spell she used activated the transfiguration spell that Hestia had cast before, changing the couch into a large bed.

Everyone said goodnight to each other, and Harry even got a hug from Emma and Hermione, leaving him blushing and stuttering from the affection. He climbed into the bed, Sirius jumping up and curling next to his feet. He read in bed for a while longer until he was sure Emma and Hermione were not coming back.

He spent the next ten minutes talking in low tones to Sirius, filling him in on everything that had happened during the day, including his meeting with Remus. Sirius chanced a quick transformation into human form to thank Harry again for believing his innocence, and to try to lift his spirits before he had to meet with Dumbledore. He transformed back to his dog form and curled around Harry's feet as they both drifted off to sleep in the flickering firelight.

AN: Thank you, everyone, for all of your reviews of the last chapter. Well, this chapter is slightly shorter than the previous two, but most chapters from now on will be between the length of this one and those two. Next chapter I guarantee will be a long one.

Next time: Dumbledore, the Sorting, and (hopefully) Luna and Susan.

Please take the time to review and let me know what you think!


	7. Author's Note Delay

Well, it has been about a month since I last posted a chapter. I have definitely not given up on this story, and I don't plan to.

Unfortunately, about three weeks ago, I got into a mountain-biking accident. I completely broke the radius bone in my right arm and fractured the ulna. As I am right handed, I've had quite a time doing anything. For the most part, my focus has been on doing school work, and it has been taking around twice to three times as long to finish each assignment, and because I am in college, the schoolwork is not something I can blow off.

I've been slowly but surely typing the next chapter with my left hand, and I'm about 3/4 of the way done. I should be finished with it within a week, and it will be posted by then - unfortunately I have about five more weeks with my cast (If everything goes right - if my bones don't heal correctly they might have to re-break them), so the chapter after the coming one might take about the same amount of time as this one has.

I thank you all for your patience in the long delay, and hope you continue reading.

I'll delete this "chapter" and upload the real chapter 6 when I get it done, just thought I'd let you know so no one thinks I've abandoned this story.

Well, I'm 21 years old today, so I'm off to do you-know-what. grins


	8. Chapter 6: Sorting

Hello everyone, my name is Danielle. I have the very sad duty of informing you that the author of this story, ShadowGryffindor (A.K.A. Taylor), has passed away. She was killed in an automobile accident on April 26th, when a drunk driver crashed into a friend's car that she was riding in.

I was one of her best friends, and also her beta for this story. I've avoided informing anyone until now because it was too painful for me to. However, Taylor's sister, over the past few months, has made me realise that Taylor would never want her story to die with her, and has convinced me to continue the story, with her assistance. I have been given access to her accounts on Portkey, Fanfiction, and Ficwad – if anyone knows of anywhere else she posted, please let us know.

Taylor loved JRR Tolkien's work, and fortunately took a page from his book - writing out large portions of the story (manuscripts, almost) far in advance. The next three chapters are nearly fully hers, exceptions being in whatever corrections I had to make. After that, there are several partial chapters, with most of the dialogue written out, but a lot of the other details only in outline form. From then on, she has an outline of the main events of what she wanted with her story, with little scenes written out fully here and there, along with the very last chapter of the story. So, you might eventually notice a slightly different writing style, but I will try to keep it as close to Taylor's as I can (we had similar styles – one of the reasons she chose me as her beta).

I ask that everyone now take a moment of silence in memory of Taylor, whose life was cut short far too early.

Here is chapter 6 – written by Taylor, with just minor corrections on my part.

Disclaimer: It's JKR's, not mine. All of the characters, settings, and ideas from the books belong to JK Rowling. I have never, and will never profit from these writings. The only things that are mine are the parts of the plot differing from the books, any original characters, and the characterization of Hermione's parents.

Key: Sentences in italics and single quotes indicate sign language. _'Sort of like this'_

Chapter 6: Sorting

_Professor Granger's Quarters, Hogwarts Castle – Sunday, 2 January, 1994_

Harry woke up the next morning to the warmth of both the still-lit fireplace, and Sirius' dog form lying nearly on top of his legs. He straightened his glasses, which he usually wore during the night, and slowly sat up.

He started to move his legs to get out of bed, causing Sirius to wake up, lift his head, and wag his tail when he saw that Harry was already awake. Harry patted him on the head, saying, "G'mornin' Blackie," before getting out of bed.

He rummaged through his new trunk and took out a pair of clothes they had bought the day before, and quickly changed into them. He then grabbed the first book he saw and sat back on the bed next to Sirius. Looking at the cover, he saw that it was _**Standard Book of Spells, Grade One**_. He eagerly opened it and began by reading through the introductory chapters and then began skimming through the different spells.

He flipped through until he got to the levitation spell that was similar to what he could already do. He snapped his wrist quickly, activating the wand holster to deposit his wand in his hand. He practiced the motions shown in the book, paying no attention to the incantation. Finally he took out a piece of paper, and focused just as he always did, but this time through his wand. Immediately he felt a difference in the amount of control he had. It was as if the wand … refined his magic, and gave him even better focus and control over it, it seemed to allow him to use less concentration than before. He began to try to use that extra focus to levitate several objects at the same time and in different locations around the room.

He was still practicing, now making several quills and other various objects float around the room at the same time, when he saw the door to the adjoining bedroom open. Hermione stumbled out, her eyes half-closed, and her hair a wild mess of tangles, carrying a set of clothes. She walked toward the loo, seemingly unaware in her half-asleep state that Harry was there in the room. She continued to walk along until her forehead hit a pen that Harry was levitating. She blinked sleepily, swatting at the pen with her hand. When it didn't move, she became more awake. She looked at the pen, confused, and then glanced around the room, finally seeing Harry sitting on the bed. She mumbled a "Good morning" to him, ducked under the pen, and continued to the loo.

Several minutes later, Emma came out of the bedroom, looking much less sleepy than her daughter. She stopped in her tracks when she saw the room filled with floating objects. Looking to the center of the room, she saw Harry sitting on the transfigured bed, wand in his hand, his eyes narrowed in concentration. She walked toward him, dodging several floating books, and sat down in the chair next to the bed. He smiled when he noticed her, but didn't stop his concentration. Out of the corner of her eye, Emma saw several of the objects begin to float back to their proper positions.

Once the last of the objects settled, Harry's expression cleared up and he looked up at her. She smiled at him and asked, _'Already practicing magic, Harry? That was very impressive'._

Harry shrugged, and she could see a hint of pink on his cheeks. _'I decided to try out my wand. It makes everything easier to do and I don't need as much concentration.'_

_'So, I guess you've seen Hermione already this morning?'_ Emma asked.

_'Yeah, she looked pretty sleepy,'_ He signed back to her.

Emma chuckled_. 'Yes, if Hermione hasn't had her morning shower, she can be rather sleepy and often quite grumpy.'_

_'How did you sleep last night, Harry?'_ Emma asked, continuing their small talk.

_'I slept really great,'_ Harry said_. 'The last two nights I've gotten the best sleep I can remember.'_

They continued their conversation for several more minutes until Hermione came out of the loo, looking much more awake, her damp hair pulled back into a loose ponytail. She walked over to Harry and Emma with a curious expression on her face.

_'Were things floating around the room earlier?'_ She signed in question.

Harry smiled at her_. 'Yeah, I was trying my floating magic using my new wand.'_

_'Okay, I wanted to make sure I wasn't just dreaming it or starting to see things.'_ She signed.

Emma excused herself to take her own shower, leaving Hermione and Harry alone. Hermione pulled out her wand and said another incantation while tapping the bed, transfiguring it back into a couch. She sat down next to Harry.

She turned to him after sitting on the couch and signed to him_. 'Take out your wand, Harry. Let's start your tutoring right now. Why don't we start off with a simple Transfiguration spell because you already seem good with Charms like your levitating magic.' _

_'Okay'_, Harry signed, looking eager. _'What spell should we do first?'_

Hermione walked over to the fireplace where there was a book of matches on the mantle because Emma was unable to use magic to light the fire. Hermione pulled a match from it and walked back over to Harry_. 'We'll start at the first Transfiguration spell everyone learns as a First-year. The goal of the spell is to change this matchstick into a needle.' _

She picked up a loose sheet of paper and wrote out the incantation of the spell, and beneath it wrote out a rough pronunciation guide for Harry. She gave the paper to him and let him read it out loud. He was off in one part of the pronunciation, so she rewrote it. After several more tries he got it correct and they then began to work on the wand movement, which was rather simple for Harry.

Hermione soon saw that as Harry continued his attempts at the spell, he slowly began to speak the incantation softer and softer until eventually he only moved his lips. She was about to note this to him, when she saw the match begin to turn a silvery color. She was surprised that he was already using nonverbal magic until she realised that it was what he had done for years as he honed his levitation ability.

Near the time that Emma was done with her shower, Harry had nearly perfected the spell. He had gotten to the point where he was making the match look exactly like a needle, but he still was unable to transform the inner part from the wood to the needle. He was becoming frustrated, mainly because he remembered how quickly he had learned the color-changing spell that Sirius had taught him. He finally tossed down the wooden "needle", looking discouraged. "It's no use. I'm no good at this." He said aloud.

Hermione quickly laid a hand on his arm, gaining his attention. _'Nonsense, Harry. You are getting very good at this spell, better than I was by the end of our first class. All I could do is give it a silvery look and make it all pointy, and you nearly have it mastered. Don't be frustrated, all you need is more practice and you'll have it. Spells can be very hard to learn, so never give up on one if you are having trouble.'_

Harry looked gratefully at her. _'Thanks. I just… thought that these spells would be easier.'_

She smiled reassuringly at him and signed, _'Some spells will be easier than others. I'll bet it took you a while to be good at levitating things, so think of it like that. Now, why don't you try the spell once again. Maybe it will help you to imagine what the needle should feel like. That's how I was able to do the spell.'_

Harry picked up another match, and this time focused on that image, imprinting it in his mind. Waving his wand and focusing on that image, he watched as the match began to become silvery and pointy. As he concentrated more, it slowly became more and more needle-like until finally it changed completely into a needle.

He looked up at Hermione, as well as Emma who had just come into the room having finished her shower, his face nearly glowing with excitement. Hermione smiled broadly at him. _'I told you that you could do it.'_ She signed to him.

Emma also smiled at him. _'That was very good, Harry. I'm going to go fix my hair, and then we can all go get breakfast. Remus is probably already up and waiting for us.'_

While Emma went to her bedroom, Harry continued practicing the spell, getting quicker each time until the transformation took only a second or two. Emma finally came out, her hair pulled back once again into a ponytail. Harry and Hermione rose from the couch and followed her out of the room and down the stairs toward the Great Hall.

When they entered the Great Hall, Remus was already sitting at the staff table, reading a paper and sipping tea. He looked up as they entered and greeted them warmly. "Good morning, you three. How did you sleep your first night here, Harry?"

"Great," Harry said, "the bed was very comfortable."

Harry sat down next to Hermione and across from Remus whom Emma sat down next to. Like the night before, cups of tea popped into existence in front of them, along with a huge breakfast that was made up of rashers of bacon, fried eggs, toast, sausages, and fried potatoes heaped on a large plate.

Harry quickly downed the bitter nutrition absorbing potion that Madam Pomfrey had given him, and then began eating. Remus set the paper aside, and Harry silently noted it was the _Daily Prophet_, the same paper that Sirius had shown him the articles about himself and the Pettigrew man from.

Hermione looked up from her breakfast, having eaten well over half of it so far, to see Harry slowly chewing, only a small portion of his breakfast eaten, and with a strange expression on his face. She knew that something was wrong, as every other time they had eaten together, he was usually the first one finished with his food.

She reached out to Harry and touched his hand to draw his attention. His head quickly turned to her. _'What's bothering you, Harry? Aren't you hungry this morning?'_ She signed in question, speaking aloud at the same time and drawing Emma's and Remus' attention.

Emma looked worried when she saw that he had barely eaten. "Are you feeling well, Harry?" Emma asked, instinctively reaching across the table and placing her hand on his forehead to check his temperature.

Harry felt himself involuntarily jerk his head back at her touch. As soon as he did so, he silently cursed his ingrained reflexes when he felt how soothing her hand had been in taking his mind off of everything he was thinking of. He leaned back forward and allowed her to press her hand on his forehead. Harry looked somewhat embarrassed, and shrugged. _'I guess I'm a little bit nervous about meeting with this Dumbledore this morning.'_

Remus spoke up at this. "Harry, everything will be fine, you don't need to worry about it, Harry. Remember, I'll be right there with you."

Hermione reached out and gave Harry's hand a quick squeeze. "Don't worry, Harry. Just be yourself and say what you feel is right. You'll be fine."

Harry smiled wanly, feeling better. He was still a bit nervous, but the overwhelming feeling he had been experiencing had died down. He ate more of his food and managed to finish off all of it, although everyone else had finished by that time.

Remus stood slowly. "Well Harry, we might as well get this over with." Harry nodded quickly and stood as well. "We shouldn't be more than thirty minutes." Remus said to Emma and Hermione. They both smiled at Harry encouragingly as he followed Remus out of the Great Hall.

Remus led them up several floors and through many of Hogwarts' twisting passages until they finally arrived in front of a statue of a gargoyle. Remus said some sort of password like the one needed to get into the Granger's quarters, and the gargoyle leapt aside, allowing Harry and Remus through the wall behind it which split open. Directly ahead of them was a spiral staircase. Remus and Harry stepped onto it, and Harry was amazed when it began to slowly move them upward.

It reached the top, and Remus knocked on a highly polished oak door. He waited a moment, apparently got an answer, and opened the door, holding it open to allow Harry through before him. Inside was a large, circular room, lit by outside lights, and with its walls covered in moving portraits. There was a large desk – one with a claw-footed bottom- on one side, and spindly tables scattered throughout the room, each holding a different silvery device on top of them.

On the desk was various pieces of paperwork, as well as an ink pot that had a scarlet feather quill in it. Behind the desk was a large, high-backed chair, and occupying the chair was Albus Dumbledore. He looked a bit like what Harry had expected – long white beard and robes. He had a long, crooked nose, and was wearing a pair of half-moon spectacles that partially hid his blue eyes. Harry could see a brilliant glow around Dumbledore, more brilliant than any of the other wizards he had seen – it was an orange-ish red, with a hint of grey around the edges, but it was bright.

Dumbledore rose, and gestured Harry to the chair in front of the desk. He said something as Harry sat down, but Harry was having difficulty understanding him. He repeated himself, but Harry still could not understand. "Excuse me, but I ain't sure what you're sayin' – it's 'ard t'read your lips with your beard."

Dumbledore's eyes widened in realization. He reached into his robe to pull out his wand. Harry's hand twitched, his instincts readying him to pull his switchblade, until Remus rested a hand on his shoulder, which reminded him he was no longer on the street.

Dumbledore retrieved the wand, waved it twice at his own face, and his long, flowing beard suddenly disappeared. Harry could see Remus gape at the now-clean shaven Dumbledore.

"Hello, Harry. I am very glad to finally meet you." Dumbledore said. He turned to Remus – "You may leave now Remus, I'd like-". He was broken off when Harry forcefully said "NO!"

Albus looked to him in surprise. "I asked Professor Lupin t'stay with me while we talk 'ere. Is that alright with you?" Harry asked him.

Dumbledore looked for a moment as if he was going to continue to protest, but a stern look from Remus stopped him. "Of course, Harry. If that would make you feel more comfortable, Remus is very welcome to stay."

Dumbledore waved his hand, and a second chair appeared, which Remus sat down in. Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and visibly steeled himself. "Now, Harry, I am sure you have already been told quite a bit, and I am sure you have many questions to ask me. I will do my best to answer any question you may have of me."

Harry nodded, was silent a moment, and then quite bluntly asked, "Why'd you put me with them?"

Dumbledore sat back in his chair – it almost looked like his face aged ten years in a few moments. He put a hand to his forehead, looking somewhat agitated. "I first must tell you how sorry I am, Harry, for what happened to you there. I had been worried that the followers of Voldemort would try to get revenge for his death by attacking you."

He sighed and continued, "Your mother had invoked a powerful, ancient magic that, with some extra spells from myself, would protect you from them, as long as you lived in the presence of a blood relative. I thought it best to place you with the Dursleys, as they were not only relatives of yours, they were also Muggles – that would provide a second level of security, as most would not think to look for the hero of the Wizarding world among the Muggles. I never knew…."

"Why didn't you check t'see how I was doin'?" Harry asked, feeling satisfied with his answer so far.

"I… I… I suppose I really do not know. I had planned on putting a Squib friend of mine in the neighborhood to keep an eye on you, but things happened so that I required her services elsewhere. After that, I suppose I became… complacent. I assumed that the spells I put in place would tell me of ANY harm coming to you – I did not realise they would not inform me about harm coming from another member of the family onto you."

He continued, "Because of that, and because of my decision to let you be raised away from the Wizarding world, I tried to minimize any contact you had with other Wizards, and thus did not even know you were missing until you would not return your Hogwarts letter response."

"I thought you were safe there. I think I … underestimated the Muggles – I never thought that anyone non-magical was so depraved and capable of such harm to a child. I knew that such a thing was not really all that uncommon among the followers of Voldemort, but I never thought that Muggles could be capable of doing that. And that is something I will always feel horrible for."

"I don't expect you to ever forgive me for what I did, but I want you to know how sorry I am for all of my mistakes in dealing with you and your future."

Harry sat silently, and nodded in acknowledgement to Dumbledore. He has been thinking he would not be able to control his anger toward the man, but now he saw that he was truly sorry for placing him with the Dursleys, he could only feel a small kindling of anger, nothing out of control. He realised that Dumbledore was right – he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to really forgive him completely for what had happened. He knew, however, that he didn't hate the man, and even felt willing to get to know him better.

Harry nodded again "You're right sir. I don't know if I can ever forgive you. But I'd like to try t'start over now, an' I'd like t'give you a chance."

Dumbledore visibly sagged in relief. "Thank you Harry. That means so much to me."

They sat in silence for several minutes, before Dumbledore's posture straightened. "Harry, I don't believe I've welcomed you to Hogwarts yet. You are most welcome to this school, and we will do our best to make up for the last two and a half years that you have missed out on."

"Now, I have been told that you are deaf, but are also rather adept at reading lips. Is there anything we can do in our classes to make sure you understand everything?"

Harry nodded briefly. "Hermione got me some Easy-Notes quills t'make it easier to take notes. Maybe you could ask them t'make sure they face th'class when they're talkin' so it's easier to read their lips." He paused, "Let's see 'ow it goes, and if I think of anythin' else, I'll let you know."

Dumbledore nodded quickly. "Of course – I'll make sure I stress that to them at our staff meeting tonight."

Remus spoke up at that moment. "Harry, if you have any questions about class, I know Hermione will be more than happy to answer them. If you have any sort of trouble with the teachers – I'm not saying you will – come and speak with me and I'll take care of it." He said, while thinking that Harry might very well be given trouble – by one teacher in particular.

"Now," said Dumbledore, "why don't we discuss your class schedule? Students start out with the basic classes: Astronomy, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Herbology, History of Magic, Transfiguration, and Potions. In their third year, which you will be entering, students choose two or more additional classes: Arithmancy, Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures, Divination, and Muggle Studies. I think it would be easiest for you if you focus on catching up on the main courses, and then next year focus on catching up in the additional classes."

Harry was nodding. "Hermione explained a lot of that to me. She said she'd 'elp me out this summer an' tutor me on some o'the secondary classes. From how she described them, I think I'll like 'rithmancy the most."

"Very good, Harry – once you get Sorted into a house, the Head of your house will give you your timetables. Speaking of that, I'd like to tell you about the Sorting." He gestured to a cabinet that held a battered, patched and frayed, extremely dirty, pointed hat. On the outside it looked like a hat that needed to be tossed in the rubbish bin, but Harry could see a brilliant glow around it, very similar to the glow of other Wizards, so he knew it contained some sort of powerful magic.

"This is the Sorting Hat. Tonight, when all of the students have returned for the feast, I'll introduce you to them, and have you sit on a stool. Professor McGonagall, who you have met, will place this hat on your head. The Sorting Hat has the ability to look into minds, and will decide what house best suits you. I'd like you to sit at the Head Table by Professor Lupin and Professor Granger this evening until you are Sorted."

"Okay," Harry said, feeling excitement build up – it was really finally hitting him: he was going to _**school**_ – something he had never thought he would be able to do until the last few days.

"Remus, we need to talk about getting a tutoring schedule set up for Harry." Dumbledore said.

"Already taken care of, Albus. I have Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights open for tutoring, Harry, and anything we don't get to then, or anything you want to expand on, we can do for part of the day on Saturdays."

"Okay, Professor Lupin. I'm looking forward to it." Harry said happily.

Dumbledore shuffled through some of the papers on his desk. "One more thing I wanted to bring up is where you are going to stay this summer, and who will be your legal guardian. I know that several families have already expressed a desire to take you in, the Weasleys…"

Harry began to feel panicked as Dumbledore began talking about placing him with someone. "Sir," he interrupted, "I-I don't want you to place me with anyone – I 'aven't even gotten t'know you, an' after what 'appened last time you placed me somewhere…."

Dumbledore blinked in shock. He realised that he was already attempting to do exactly what he had done years ago, which had turned out so horribly. "I am very sorry, Harry, I didn't even think of that." He paused for a moment. "I think it would be best if I relinquish my status as the executor of you and your parent's estate, to limit my temptation to do this."

They were silent for a moment, and then Remus spoke up. "Albus, Harry and I have already spoken on plans for this summer. We've agreed to get to know each other better, and if he still wants to live with me, he is more than welcome to."

"But what about…" Albus said quickly, trailing off, his eyes straying quickly to Harry, who was watching the conversation.

"Do you really think that the Ministry will deny me him now after what happened when I was fighting so hard for him before? I think they'll be trying their best to save face, and they won't want a media controversy exposing that. I don't think I'll have any problem adopting Harry if he wants me to." Remus said.

"That is a very good point. If that is what you two end up deciding, I assure you I will not stand in your way." Dumbledore said.

Remus began to stand, and Harry moved quickly to follow his lead. "If that is all, Albus?"

Dumbledore nodded to them. "I will see you both tonight at the feast. It was wonderful to finally meet you, Harry. I hope you enjoy your time here at Hogwarts." As they exited the room, Dumbledore waved his hand, and his white beard re-appeared on his face. He sat down, shaky from the entire conversation, and rested his head in his hands.

Remus and Harry rode down the spiral staircase, and began walking back toward the Emma's quarters. Harry looked shyly over to Remus several times, before finally speaking up to him. "P-professor Lupin, thank you for comin' with me – I don't think it would've gone as well as it did if you 'and't been with me."

Remus smiled warmly at him. "Please, Harry, when we aren't in the classroom you can call me Remus. And you don't have to thank me – if you ever need someone for support, or even just for help, you only have to ask me, or Emma, or Hermione, and we'll be glad to."

"Okay Pro… Remus," Harry said, catching himself.

They reached Emma's quarters, and Harry said: "Einstein" to the portrait, and the door slid open. He stopped short when he saw no one there, and all of the candles and torches begin to flare to life as he entered. He turned around. "They aren't 'ere, Remus," he said, looking confused.

A grin flitted across Remus' face, and he said, "I think I can guess exactly where they are right now."

Harry thought a moment, his eyes met Remus', and almost in unison they said, "The library." They made their way, laughing, toward the library.

When they entered the library, they saw the two sitting at one of the tables. As they approached them from behind, Remus gave another grin – at that moment, Harry realised, he looked nearly twenty years younger – and and held his finger to his lips, and both of them crept up behind the girls who were engrossed in their books.

"Reading anything interesting?" Remus asked, standing directly behind Emma's chair. Emma's head snapped up, and she nearly jumped out of her chair, while Hermione gave a yelp, her book tumbling to the table.

"Remus Lupin," Emma said, standing up and shaking a finger at him. "Are you trying to kill us of fright?" She asked, trying to look sternly at him and Harry, but unable to keep a smile off her face.

Hermione turned as well, and nearly jumped on Harry, pulling him into a hug, one which he thought would jeopardise his ability to take in oxygen. She pulled back quickly, and signed to him_. 'How did it go, Harry?'._

He signed back. _'It went alright. I had to make him understand a few things, but I didn't really get angry like I thought I would'._

_'I told you that you would be fine, Harry._' Hermione signed. _'Do you want to talk about the meeting?'_

Harry shrugged. _'Well, we talked about my classes for this term…'_

_School Library, Hogwarts Castle – Sunday afternoon, 2 January, 1994_

They had eaten lunch together, and now it was getting close to the time that the students would be returning to the castle. Hermione was becoming excited, and had spent the last five minutes telling Harry about Luna and Susan. _'Oh, I can't wait to introduce you to them, I'm sure you're going to like them. Now remember, sometimes Luna is a bit odd, but don't make fun of her or anything – I think it is her way of dealing with her mum dying when she was little.'_ Hermione signed to him.

She looked up when she began to hear the telltale sounds of students entering the castle. 'They're here.' She signed. She grabbed Harry's hand, something he managed to keep himself from flinching away from, and pulled him from his seat and began almost dragging him from the library, not aware of her mother watching them, stifling a laugh with one hand when she saw Harry get yanked around by Hermione.

Hermione led him down to the Entrance to Hogwarts, where the huge doors now stood open, allowing students to make their way in. She saw Luna and Susan making their way toward their separate dormitories, leaving the entrance hall, and quickly brought Harry over to them.

Harry looked ahead to where Hermione was pulling him, and saw two girls that he began to assume were Luna and Susan. One was a tall, thin girl, her long red hair worn in a plait down the center of her back – her bright blue eyes contrasted with her red hair. The other girl had straggly, waist-length dirty-blond hair, thin eyebrows, and silvery-blue colored eyes. She wore earrings that looked like radishes or turnips, and had a wand tucked behind her ear.

"Hermione!" They greeted warmly when they saw her. The red-head's eyes drifted over to Harry. "Who's the cute boy?" She asked Hermione teasingly. Harry understood her question and felt himself blush.

Hermione pulled Harry forward to stand next to her. "Harry, this is Susan Bones," she paused and let Susan shake his hand. "And this is Luna Lovegood. Susan and Luna, this is my new friend Harry – he's going to begin attending here at Hogwarts as a Third Year."

Luna extended her hand, and looked directly at Harry – her face without the daydreaming expression he had seen on it moments ago – as she shook his hand. "Hello, Harry. I am very sorry that you have lost your ability to hear. You should count yourself lucky, though, that you haven't been infested by the Blackfooted Marblers – they can make you blind." She said, her dreamy expression returning as she made her last comment.

Harry and Hermione stared at her in shock. "'ow…'ow'd you know?" Harry asked her.

"Oh, I know a lot of things that others don't know. Did you know my Daddy publishes a newspaper?" She said, changing the subject rather nonchalantly.

Susan broke in. "Is he really deaf, Hermione?" She asked.

Hermione nodded. "Yes, Harry is deaf, but he can usually understand you by reading your lips. He also knows sign language, which is something I learned years ago."

Susan looked to Harry. "It's very nice to meet you. I hope we can become good friends."

"It's nice t'meet you too, Susan. Hermione's been telling me all 'bout you an' Luna."

Susan looked to both Harry and Hermione. "Well, I need to get something from my dormitory before the feast, so I'll see you at the feast."

Harry saw Hermione's eyes light up like she had just remembered something. She quickly walked after Susan. "Oh, Susan, I just remembered something that I wanted to ask you…"

She and Susan stopped a dozen feet away, discussing something. Harry looked back to Luna, who was staring at him again, without her dreamy expression. She stepped closer to him, and placed a hand gently on his arm. "I was beginning to wonder when you would be found, Harry Potter." She said. "I've heard of some of the things that you went through – I'm very sorry."

"Thank you Luna. But… how did you know my…"

"Your name? Oh, that was rather simple – Hermione told me you were Harry, and then I caught a glimpse of your scar through your hair."

Her dreamy look began to return. "I think we're going to be good friends, Harry, all four of us." A comment she made before the dreaminess returned completely chilled him, but Hermione had begun walking back, and he didn't want to start questioning Luna. She had said: "Make sure Professor Lupin doesn't see the dog until the right time."

By then Hermione returned, and the three of them began talking, and eventually Luna, too, went back to her dorm. Hermione and Harry were alone in the corridor, and she looked over at Harry while nervously gnawing at her bottom lip_. 'So, how did you like them?'_ She signed, looking apprehensive.

He immediately smiled at her. _'I like them both. They're both really nice, and I'd like to become friends with them too. Luna figured out I was Harry Potter, and didn't even act like you warned me some people might act'._

Hermione chuckled, and shook her head in amazement_. 'Yeah, that's Luna. It always seems like she's daydreaming, but she really is one of the most observant people I've ever seen.' _She looked seriously to Harry_. 'I'm glad you want to become friends with them too. You're so nice to me, and you deserve a lot of friends.'_

Harry blushed, and stood there awkwardly. Hermione saved him from having to reply by signing to him, before grabbing his hand, _'Come on, Harry, we should get to the Great Hall so we can sit down'._

_Great Hall, Hogwarts Castle – Sunday evening, 2 January, 1994_

Harry was sitting at the staff table, next to Emma and Remus, and was aware of the stares and whispers of a large portion of the school population who sat at the tables in front of him, waiting for the feast to begin. He had set up the Easy-Notes quill to help him understand what others were saying.

In the Hall tables in front of them, the hundreds of students shifted anxiously, hungrily, in their seats, eager to begin the feast. Finally Dumbledore rose from his seat.

"Students, I ask for your attention. I'm sure you have all been wondering who our young guest up here at the Head table is. Well, I have the very joyous job of telling you all some wonderful news. I'd like to introduce you all to Mister Harry Potter." Immediately the entire crowd of students began whispering amongst themselves.

"We have only recently found Mister Potter alive, contrary to what we had feared. He will be just beginning courses here this term, and as it is his first time here, I ask that you extend every hospitality to him."

When Dumbledore finished speaking, he gestured for Harry to stand up. Somewhere in the huge crowd, someone began clapping, and it seemed to be contagious, as within a few moments, nearly everyone in the room was clapping and cheering. Harry thought idly that he was rather glad he couldn't hear it, as he figured it would be extremely loud.

Dumbledore raised his hands, and slowly the applause and cheering died down. "Now, before we begin our feast, we will have a special Sorting for Mister Potter. Harry, if you will." Dumbledore said, gesturing toward a three-legged stool.

Harry walked over to it, and sat down. Professor McGonagall made her way over to him, carrying the ancient Sorting hat. She placed it on his head, and he immediately felt an overwhelming feeling of piece.

"**Hello, Harry Potter.**" Harry jerked at the sudden voice – how could he hear it?

"**Do not be afraid, Harry, I am the Sorting Hat, and I can speak to others through their minds, which I know you are wondering, due to your deafness.**"

'Okay, this is weird,' Harry thought to himself.

"**Well, I must express my sympathies to you – I am very sorry for the horrendous things you have survived and had to go through.**"

'Thanks,' Harry thought, 'I think everyone is waiting, though.'

"**Ah, thank you for reminding me. I must compliment you on your personal mental shields – they are really quite strong. Now, what house should I put you in.**"

"**You could go into Hufflepuff because of your strong sense of honor, and your loyalty to your friends."**

"**I could put you in Ravenclaw because of your very high intelligence and problem-solving abilities."**

"**I could put you in Slytherin because of how cunning you are, what with bringing Sirius Black himself into Hogwarts,– don't worry, your secret is safe with me, and because of your ambitions to become a great and well-respected person."**

"**I could also put you in Gryffindor because of your stunning bravery, not only in the face of people like that gang that attacked you, but also in the face of what you have experienced in the past. The fact that you are still alive, rather than having given in to the urge to commit suicide, testifies to your bravery."**

"**I think one aspect outshines all of your others, and that is what I will decide on for you. Do you have anything to say before I make my decision?"**

Harry thought for a moment, and then said, "Please, please put me in Hermione's house. She's my best friend, and the only student who knows sign-language, and I don't want to be put into a different house."

The hat was silent a moment, and then said: "**Very well, Mister Potter, I will take that into account."**

The hat was silent for another long moment, before it began to speak both aloud and in Harry's mind.

"You will be suited best for…………… GRYFFINDOR!!!"

AN: I hope all of you enjoyed the chapter (see how easily it could have been left a cliffhanger? insert diabolical laughter here ) – it was all Taylor's except for some corrections on spelling errors. I apologize again for not posting it sooner, but I hope you understand why I couldn't bring myself to do it so soon. I don't know when the next chapter will be out, as I'm going to visit family in Wisconsin for the next week or so, and I will also have my head buried in the new Harry Potter Book (I'll be in line for the midnight release).

Have fun with Deathly Hallows – I'm sure it'll be good (just hope she doesn't kill off Harry or Hermione).

Next time: Reactions to Harry's placement; staff meeting; we meet Ron, Neville, and many other students; Draco makes an appearance; and the first day of classes.


	9. Chapter 7: Monday

Hello there everyone, I can't thank you all enough for all the kind words you have given me in your reviews. I've tried my best to reply to every review, but I might have missed a few here or there.

This chapter is largely Taylor's, with minor changes made by me.

A special thanks goes out to **Jadesabrexiv **of Portkey, who volunteered to beta the story for me, and worked on this chapter.

Disclaimer: It's JKR's, not mine. All of the characters, settings, and ideas from the books belong to JK Rowling. I have never, and will never profit from these writings. The only things that are mine are the parts of the plot differing from the books, any original characters, and the characterization of Hermione's parents.

Key: Sentences in italics and single quotes indicate sign language. _'Sort of like this'_

**Chapter 7: Monday**

_Great Hall, Hogwarts Castle – Sunday evening, 2 January, 1994_

_The hat was silent for another long moment, before it began to speak both aloud and in Harry's mind._

"_You will be suited best for…………… GRYFFINDOR!!!"_

The entire Gryffindor table erupted into loud cheers. Hermione could hear some chanting: "We've got Potter, we've got Potter!"

As she, too, clapped and cheered, feeling both relieved and excited that Harry would be in the same House as she was, she looked down the table and realized it was the Weasley twins; Fred and George who were leading the chant.

Harry pulled the Sorting Hat from his head, and was greeted by a smiling McGonagall, who took back the Sorting Hat, and gestured toward the cheering Gryffindor table.

He was stunned when he saw it and realized that so many people were so excited just because _he_ was now part of their House. Hermione had told him how the Wizarding world viewed him as some sort of incredible hero, but it hadn't really hit him until now. Looking around, he saw that many from the other Houses were cheering as well.

Harry hopped off the stool and made his way to the Gryffindor table. He was glad to see that the first open spot was next to a clapping, grinning Hermione who sat at the end of the table.

As he sat down, he was almost immediately overwhelmed by others around the table reaching out to shake his hand and introduce themselves. He managed to catch a few names: Katie, Lee, a girl with the last name of Patil, and Kenneth – but for the most part he couldn't catch many of them.

When others from further down the long Gryffindor table began to get up to rush over and introduce themselves, Dumbledore saw how crowded and overwhelmed Harry was beginning to look, and quickly stood.

"Students! Students, please be seated. I know you all want to greet our new student, and you will have plenty of time to socialize later, but I must ask that you all give Mr. Potter some space – this is all very new to him, and we do not want to overwhelm him on his first day."

The students reluctantly settled down, and then Dumbledore waved his hands, and suddenly platters of food appeared on the tables in front of them.

"Before we begin our feast, I have been asked by Minister Fudge to instruct everyone to be move vigilant than ever with Sirius Black on the loose – the Minister says he believes that Black may attempt to attack students at Hogwarts in the coming months, and says that he has had several reported sightings in the area outside of Hogsmeade."

He paused, and his expression became more serious. "The Dementor guard around the castle has been increased by the Minister, so I must ask that all students remain within the castle walls after dusk, unless they have written permission from a Professor to be out in the Castle grounds. I am very serious – even if you are not harmed by the Dementors, you will be severely punished."

His expression lightened drastically as he finally said: "Now, let our feast begin!"

Very soon everyone was busy with the task of eating, which made Harry feel relieved that he would not be bombarded by them, at least for the next little while. As he ate, he slowly looked down the table at the unfamiliar faces, and tried to steel himself for the challenge of beginning school for the first time.

As he was beginning once again to feel overwhelmed just by thinking of what was coming, he saw Hermione glance at him, her smile still on her face, and then he looked up at the staff table to Remus and Emma, and he realized that while it might seem overwhelming, he'd also have their help.

It wasn't something he was used to – he was much more used to relying only on himself, the only exception being the help he had received from Amy – but the more he thought about it, the more comforting it was to him.

_Hogwarts Castle – Sunday evening, 2 January, 1994_

As soon as the feast was finished, Remus walked over to the table and asked Harry to come with him. He knew that he'd basically be mobbed otherwise, which was one of his reasons for doing it. As he led Harry out of the Great Hall, while the other students were dismissed from their tables, he pulled Harry to an empty classroom.

He smiled at Harry. "Well, you're a Gryffindor now. Your dad and mum and I were Gryffindors as well."

Harry smiled back. "I was 'opin' I'd be Gryffindor so I'd be in the same 'ouse as Hermione." He paused, "Professor, when I 'ad the Sortin' Hat on, I could _**hear**_ it. It said it could speak to people through their minds, so I was wonderin'….. could I use the Sortin' Hat, or is there something like it here at school so it's easier t'understand everyone?"

Remus sighed heavily when he saw Harry's slightly hopeful expression. "I'm sorry Harry. The Sorting Hat uses a type of magic called Legilimency, which can be used to both read the minds of others, or to send your own thoughts into their minds."

Harry interrupted, "Sorta like t'lepathy?"

Remus nodded. "Very much like telepathy. But prolonged contact through Legilimency like what you're asking about causes brain damage." He placed a hand on Harry's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Harry."

Harry looked up at him, feeling somewhat disappointed. "It's okay. It's just… that was the first time I 'eard anythin' in years, an' I got excited."

"I know, Harry. I'll talk to the Headmaster tonight to see if he can think of anything similar to the Sorting Hat that wouldn't be harmful. Anyway, I wanted to talk to you about your housing here at the school. It'll take a day or two to get the Castle to enlarge the Gryffindor boys dormitory, and get a bed set up for you, so for now you can stay in Emma's quarters like you did last night, okay?"

Harry nodded. "Okay. I wanted t' talk to Hermione before ev'ryone goes to bed – I couldn't talk to 'er at dinner."

Remus grinned. "Sure thing, Harry - she's probably saying goodnight to her mum right now, so you better get going before she starts heading off to Gryffindor tower. See you tomorrow night for our first tutoring session. I'll show you where my office is after lunch tomorrow."

"Okay Remus, see you tomorrow!" Harry said quickly, before heading out of the room. Remus saw how his expression lit up when he mentioned the tutoring, and knew already that Harry would have no trouble at all catching up – he had a strong drive to learn; one that he suspected nearly matched Hermione's.

_Entrance Hall, Hogwarts Castle – Sunday evening, 2 January, 1994_

Hermione was leaving the Great Hall in the company of Luna and Susan when Harry caught up to her. They were walking shoulder-to-shoulder, discussing something. Luna glanced up and saw him approaching. "Hello, Harry, congratulations on your Sorting," she greeted warmly.

Hermione and Susan both looked up when Luna began talking to Harry. Hermione greeted him with an excited hug. _'Oh, Harry, I'm so glad you were sorted into Gryffindor. I'll be able to help you so much better and it will be so much easier for us to do our tutoring sessions.'_

Harry smiled at her. "I'm glad I got sorted there too. I asked the 'at to put me in Gryffindor, even though 'e said I could go in any of the 'ouses."

Hermione nodded in understanding. "Yes, I remember reading in _Hogwarts, A History_, that the Sorting Hat communicates through the mind when it is on your head, instead of through words spoken out loud."

As Hermione was talking, Harry's attention was drawn partially to four boys that walked out of the Great Hall together, spotted him, and came towards them. One was a lanky red head, another was a tall boy with sandy-colored hair, the third was a slightly-round-faced boy with brown hair, and the fourth was the tallest of the three, with dark skin and dark brown eyes.

The four brushed past Hermione to stand in front of him. The redhead, who seemed to sort of be the "leader" of the group, spoke up, the others nodding when their names were mentioned. "Hello there, Harry. I'm Ron Weasley and this is Neville, Seamus, and Dean. I hope we can become good friends. We'll help show you the way things work around here, and teach you who is worth becoming friends with."

Ron extended a hand toward him, but continued talking, which proved to be a large mistake. "You don't have to associate with people like Loony Lovegood, or the Book Freak or their ditzy red-headed friend. Hopefully they haven't given you a bad impression of our school so far."

Harry had begun to reach out to shake Ron's hand, but when Ron continued to speak, several things happened at once. First, he realized that Ron was insulting Hermione, Luna, and Susan. At the same time, he saw a look of sadness, almost of betrayal in Hermione's eyes as she saw him about to accept a friendship with Ron. Finally, images of Vernon's deranged face screaming the word "freak" at him were triggered when Ron called Hermione a "Book freak". He knew immediately what he was going to do.

He grasped Ron's proffered hand, feeling horrible when he saw Hermione's eye fill with tears before she abruptly turned and made as if to walk away, and Susan glaring at him before turning as well. Only Luna did not make a move to go, and merely watched the unfolding scene with a peaceful expression.

Ron's smile vanished rather quickly, however, when Harry grasped more firmly, steadily applying more pressure. Ron's face reddened as the grip soon turned painful. "Bloody hell, Potter, what's your problem? Let go, that hurts!"

Harry saw Susan and Hermione glance back at Ron's outburst. "I'll let go when y'apologize to Hermione an' Susan an' Luna." He squeezed harder. "Say it."

"Alright, alright! I'm sorry for what I said about you three! Now let me go!" Harry released his grip, and Ron staggered back a step, massaging his sore hand.

"I ain't goin' to tolerate anyone insultin' my friends. An' I certainly don' want t' be friends with a bully like you, Weasley," Harry said, and then his voice became lower, more dangerous, enough to send chills down Hermione's spine when she heard how serious he was, "An' if I _ever_ 'ear you call Hermione a "freak" again, you'll be very, very sorry."

Ron's face screwed up into an expression of dislike, and Neville, Seamus, and Dean moved closer to Ron's side. "You'll be sorry about this, Potter. You won't like being on our bad side."

He turned, and before Seamus turned to follow as well, the sandy-haired boy spoke up. "Have fun befriending these outcasts – no one else here at Hogwarts likes them, so you'll get really unpopular really fast."

Neville settled on merely looking down his nose at the four of them, nodding in agreement to Seamus' statement, saying, "You've chosen the wrong friends," and turning on his heel to follow Ron and Seamus, and Dean, who had just shook his head and left without a word.

Harry didn't pay them much attention – he was more focused on Hermione. He saw her quickly wipe her tears on the sleeve of her robes, and then look at him in awe. "I… I… you just… you _defended_ us."

Harry saw Susan looking at him with an expression of surprise as well, and he felt his cheeks redden. He ran his hand nervously through his hair. "Well o'course I did. We're friends. Didya think I'd drop you for jerks like them?"

It was Hermione's turn to look embarrassed. "For a minute I thought you would. I thought you'd finally seen we aren't worth your time and that there are a lot better people that you could be friends with."

Harry looked at her, shock written over his face. "You're not worth **my** time? You've 'elped me so much 'ere, even though you didn' even know me, an' you introduced me t'your friends so I'd know a few more people 'ere. If anythin' I ain't worth your time – I'm just a dumb old deaf street kid, who doesn't know anythin' 'bout magic."

Hermione's face became stern. "Harry, don't talk like that. You've been very nice to me since we met, and you just showed what a good friend you are. I think that makes you a much better person than what you described yourself as. And who cares if you don't know much about magic? I didn't know much when I came here and neither did Luna or Susan."

Luna spoke up, her serene expression still on her face. "Thank you for defending me Harry. I'm really quite used to people like Ronald, but it feels nice having someone besides Hermione or Susan standing up for me."

Susan, looking embarrassed, said, "I'm sorry for thinking you'd join up with Ron and them after what they said. I'll be glad and proud to call you my friend."

Harry glanced away, and when he looked back, Hermione could see his eyes were moist. "Thank you. I… thanks." He ended up saying.

A brown haired Ravenclaw girl, wearing a badge that said "Head Girl" on it on her robes, walked up to them. "Headmaster Dumbledore wants everyone to attend breakfast tomorrow, so you'd all better get to your houses and to bed so you aren't tired for the first day of classes." She paused as she noticed Harry, and recognized him. "Hello, you must be Harry Potter. I'm Penelope Clearwater, the Head Girl here at Hogwarts."

"Nice t' meet you, Penelope, what's 'Head Girl' mean?" He asked.

"Oh, the Head Boy and Head Girl of the school are students that are appointed by the Headmaster to help with different duties around the school, like discipline and things like that." Harry nodded, somewhat understanding, but planning on asking Hermione more about it sometime.

"I really must get going. If you ever have any problems, please feel free to come and talk to me." She said warmly, before she turned and strode down the Hall toward the Ravenclaw dormitories.

"Well, see you tomorrow morning, Harry, I'm tired from the train trip here." Susan said, involuntarily yawning.

"I will go to my dormitory as well. If we stay out too late the bat winged Narflers that live in the dungeons will begin their nightly hunt." Luna said.

"Goodnight you two," Hermione said, and Harry chimed in.

Very quickly, it was just Harry and Hermione, standing together in the corridor. "Where are you going to sleep tonight, Harry?" Hermione asked.

"Professor Lupin said th'next night or two I'll stay on your mum's couch like I did las' night. 'e said that it'll take a while 'till they've got a bed set up for me in Gryffindor." Harry said.

Hermione nodded, thought about something, and then her expression became worried, and she switched to sign language. _'Oh, Harry, that means you'll be in the same dorm as Ronald Weasley and the others, and they'll want to get back at you for rejecting them and standing up for me.'_

Harry shrugged. _'Don't worry, I think that at least for right now Weasley's scared of me, and besides, I've dealt with worse people out on the streets for years.'_

Hermione looked doubtful, but decided to drop it for the moment. _'Alright, Harry. I'd better get back too, so goodnight. I'll come over to mum's quarters before breakfast tomorrow, and we can walk to breakfast together.'_

Harry smiled. _'Okay, see you tomorrow, Hermione.'_

Hermione waved back at him as she walked in the direction of Gryffindor Tower. Harry took a deep breath, and headed back to Professor Granger's quarters, thinking again about the recent encounter with Ron Weasley, Neville, Dean, and Seamus. He knew he had dealt with much worse people than those three, but it bugged him that he'd have to deal with them everyday as they would all be in the same dorm as him.

"Einstein." He said, as he approached the portrait in front of Emma's quarters. He was startled when Emma started exiting the room at the same time he was entering.

She looked surprised as well. _'Oh, Harry. I wasn't expecting you so soon. Remus told me you're staying here for a few days, but he said you were going off to talk to Hermione. Right now I'm headed to the staff meeting.'_

'_I said goodnight to Hermione, Susan, and Luna. They all said they were going to bed.'_ Harry signed back to her.

She smiled widely, _'So you met Susan and Luna. What did you think of them?'_

'_They're really nice. I can see why they're Hermione's friends. They said they hope we can be friends too.'_ Harry signed. He hesitated_. 'I also met a kid named Ronald Weasley, and three other boys. Seamus, Neville, an' Dean I think'_

Emma's expression darkened, knowing that Ron Weasley and those three had been among the worst of Hermione's tormenters that had caused such damage to her self-esteem, and she knew they were still causing trouble for Hermione, as well as Luna and Susan. _'How did that go?'_ She asked.

Harry smiled sheepishly. _'Don't think we'll be friends anytime soon. Almost the first thing he did was call Hermione a "book freak", and insulted Susan and Luna too. I made him apologize, and he said I was on his "bad side" now.' _Harry signed.

Emma couldn't help a smile, realizing that Ron had unknowingly done probably the most foolish thing he could: insulted one of the first people to befriend Harry. _'I thought something like that might happen. There are several people here at this school who have made it horrible for Hermione here, and those four are some of the worst.'_

She put her hand on his shoulder. _'Thank you for defending Hermione. Now, I have to get going so I'm not late. I'll be back in about an hour, so see you then.'_

"Okay," Harry said, and in moments he was alone in the room. He walked over to the couch and sat down. Sirius trotted over in his dog form, first walking over to the door and listening for a moment and then plopping down on the couch next to Harry. He quickly morphed back into his human form.

"Hey, how'd it go today?" He asked, knowing Harry had been worried about confronting Dumbledore.

Harry shrugged. "Alright, I guess. I didn't get really angry like I thought I would. I agreed to sorta start over and give 'im a chance. 'e agreed to stop bein' the person who controls my mum an' dad's will." He paused. "Prof- _Remus_ wants t'get to know me, an' said if I want to, I can live with 'im this summer. I 'ope 'e isn't too disappointed when we clear your name an' I live with you."

Sirius shook his head. "I'm sure he'll understand. Besides, he'll definitely be welcome to live with us."

"You know 'e thinks you killed Pett'grew. 'e told me to look out for you."

Sirius sighed, and passed a hand over his eyes. "We never told him about the switch – we all thought he would betray us. He'll realize the truth once we catch Pettigrew."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, before his expression broke out in a smile. "I'm in Gryffindor!"

Sirius' own expression lit up, and he pulled Harry into a hug. He pulled back and said, "That's great, Harry! Remus, your mum and dad, and I were all in Gryffindor too. Looks like you're continuing a family tradition – I think that every Potter has been in Gryffindor, except one or two that made it into Ravenclaw." He hesitated for a moment. "You're glad you're in Gryffindor, right?"

Harry nodded emphatically. "I asked the Sorting Hat t'put me there, so I'd be in the same house as Hermione."

"Okay, just checking." Sirius said. "So, I heard you telling Hermione's mum you had a run-in with some jerks, and made them apologize to Hermione. Did you use a stunning spell like last time?" He asked, grinning at Harry.

Harry felt heat coloring his cheeks, and could tell Sirius was teasing him – something he could get used to, he thought- and said, "No, I just shook 'is 'and and then squeezed until 'e apologized."

Harry saw Sirius' hand came up to cover his face and he started shaking. Harry was startled, thinking Sirius was crying for some reason.

"W-what's wrong?" He asked, concerned.

Sirius' hand came down, and Harry realized he had been _laughing_ and still was. "Sor..sorry Harry." Sirius said, getting control of himself. "That just reminded me so much of James. When he was dating your mum, one of the Slytherins called your mum a Mudblood, which got James angry. He used some sort of spell to apply pressure to the kids… you know… his bits?... until he swore to apologize to your mum in public."

Harry smiled, although sadly – realizing he'd only ever hear things like this from Sirius and Remus, rather than straight from his parents. He looked at Sirius curiously asked, "What's a 'Mudblood' or whatever you said?"

"It's Mudblood," Sirius said, "and it is a very nasty, hateful term used in the Wizarding world to describe people who have Muggles for parents, and don't come from a Wizard or Witch parent. It would apply to Hermione, your mum, and a lot of other wizards and witches. In the Wizarding world, a lot of importance is placed on blood, especially by those who have a long family history of wizards. Muggle-borns are considered to have 'dirty' blood, which is why the word is 'Mudblood'." He looked down a moment. "My family is one of those. I'm one of the few in the family who would never use such a term, and I really don't care who someone's parents are or if they were wizards or not – I look at that person and their actions before I judge them, not their family tree."

Harry nodded. "I think that's a good way t'look at it. So it's sorta like a slur like what some people say about African people?"

"Yep, it's exactly like that. Now, what's this I heard about two new friends?" Sirius asked, smiling at his godson.

"Oh, well, Hermione introduced me to 'er friends Luna an' Susan. They're both really nice, an' it didn't bother them when they found out I'm deaf. Luna's a bit … different. A lot o'the time she looks like she's daydreamin', but then she'll get real serious an' know things she shouldn't. She knew I was deaf before we told 'er, and…." Harry hesitated, looking a little worried, "she knew somethin' about _you_. She told me t'not let Remus see you 'til 'the time is right'. Well, she said 'the dog', but I know she meant you."

Sirius' own expression became serious as well. "How would she know about me? I hope she doesn't say anything to anyone else."

Sirius sighed heavily. "Well, there's nothing we can do about that," he said. "By the way, I saw you and Hermione work on that spell this morning. I think you did great."

Harry shrugged. "It was 'arder than I thought it'd be, but it ended up bein' fun."

The two talked some more about the day, but soon Sirius decided to go back to his dog form, as the staff meeting would soon be over. He plopped down next to Harry, who pulled out _Introduction to the Magical World_, and looked through the index for "Mudblood". He found it under a chapter on "Blood Purity", and began reading the chapter, to learn more about it all.

_Staff Office, Hogwarts Castle – Sunday evening, 2 January, 1994_

Dumbledore concluded their meeting by asking every teacher to make sure they help Harry the best they can. Emma had been there to explain to them Dumbledore's request that they make an effort to look toward the class while teaching so Harry could read their lips. She had to explain to several of them not to exaggerate their words while they were speaking, as that would make it even more difficult for Harry to understand, but to instead speak as they normally would.

He had told them that he was planning to announce the fact that Harry was deaf, at breakfast the next morning. Emma found that she agreed with his reasoning – it would be best to be open about it to the students, rather than making Harry hide something that was an integral part of him. She also thought it would increase support by other classmates if they knew right off.

As she left the room with the others, thought back to how wonderfully accepting the others were to Harry's deafness. The only person she though might cause trouble was Severus Snape. 'That damnable man had better not be his usual self to Harry.' She thought to herself. She was comforted in the fact that Remus felt the same way, and would deal very swiftly with him, should Snape step out of line with regards to Harry.

She quietly said goodnight to Minerva when she came to the hallway that her quarters were in. "Einstein." She said, and the portrait/door swung open. She was ready for Harry to greet her, but smiled when she saw he had fallen asleep on the couch. She saw Blackie look up at her, and could have sworn he gave her a look that said "Don't wake him up".

She looked at Harry, who was lying peacefully on his side next to a closed book, and felt a warm surge of affection for him. 'He's such a great kid,' she thought, 'especially with what he's gone through in his life.' She was shocked to realize she was beginning to view him almost as her own child. She knew a lot of it was her maternal instinct, but realized he had very quickly, and unexpectedly, wormed his way into her heart – 'And that's not a bad thing', she thought. She knew she would do her best to protect him just as she would Hermione.

Emma walked over to the couch and took his book and set it on the nearby table. She grabbed one of the blankets from the back of the couch, which he had used the previous night, and spread it out to cover him up, taking care not to wake him up. She leaned down, pressed a kiss to his forehead, and saw him smile in his sleep. She patted Blackie on the head and whispered a "goodnight" to him, before heading off to her own room to get ready for bed.

_Great Hall, Hogwarts Castle – Monday morning, 3 January, 1994_

Harry sat down at the table next to Hermione, having survived the mob of people from various houses introducing themselves to him. He glanced up and saw Professor McGonagall walking toward him. She handed him a sheet of paper. "Mr. Potter, this is your timetable for classes. You'll note I also listed the times of the Third year elective classes – Remus told me you'd like to visit each class and see what you like for next year. The professors of the classes have been informed, and you are free to visit whenever you would like. Today, I'd suggest you focus on looking ahead at material that will be covered in the required classes, because for this entire term, you have no classes on Mondays."

She handed him several stacks of parchment. "Each of these is a course syllabus for your classes, so you can look ahead at what the class will be studying." She turned to leave, but stopped and looked back. "I'm very glad to have you in Gryffindor house, and as the Head of Gryffindor, I want you to know if you ever need help, just come talk to me."

Harry nodded to her. "Thanks Professor."

When Harry turned back, he blinked in shock – all throughout the Hall, a veritable flock of owls flew into the Hall, each owl carrying some sort of parcel, a majority of them carrying newspapers, which were delivered to the students and many of the teachers. An owl landed by Hermione, and she dropped a few knuts into the money pouch it carried.

Hermione's eyes narrowed when she unfurled the paper – the _Daily Prophet_. She skimmed through the front page, her mouth setting in a firm line. She looked nervously around the table where others were reading the paper and beginning to whisper, then up at her mum, who had a similar expression. She glanced at Harry, and finally he asked her: "What's wrong, Hermione?"

Hermione sighed, and then set the paper between them, so Harry could read it. On the front, they had a large picture of him – one that he wondered where they had gotten it from – and the headline:

_**Harry Potter found – Alive!**__ By Rita Skeeter_

He read on:

_Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived, who many had feared dead after he was abandoned by his Muggle relatives, has been found alive, and has been taken to Hogwarts to begin the education he has missed out on._

_Sources from inside Hogwarts tell us, however, that while he is alive, he is definitely not "well". He carries scars from his abuse under the hands of his relatives, and also, apparently, from the years he has spent on the street. We have also found that the Hero of the Wizarding World is completely deaf – apparently from a bout with Wizard's Meningitis. Deafness is rare among us, and is generally curable, but our source says the school nurse has determined that it is not very likely that Wizarding Physicians and Healers will be able to cure his deafness….._

Harry tossed the paper down, feeling queasy at how much they knew, and now, how much the entire Wizarding world knew. Harry looked around and now saw other students whispering to each other, some openly pointing at him, and a few looking at him with distaste. He lowered his gaze to stare at his food. Hermione squeezed his arm under the table, and he managed a very weak smile of thanks to her.

When he glanced up, the girl across from him, the 'Patil' girl he remembered, spoke to him. "Is the paper right?" She asked him.

Harry glanced at Hermione, and reluctantly nodded. Her expression softened. "I'm so sorry, that's terrible!" she exclaimed, "But… how can you understand me?" She asked, realizing that he had answered her question, and not Hermione.

Harry shrugged, uncomfortably aware of all the people around the table listening in and staring at him. "I went deaf 'bout four years ago, so I already knew 'ow to talk, an' I'm really good at readin' lips."

Others around him began asking questions, but they were interrupted when Dumbledore called for silence.

Harry looked up, and saw Emma and Remus, both looking at him with concerned gazes. Harry gave them the same weak smile he had given Hermione.

"Well, I had been planning on informing all of you this morning that young Harry has lost has hearing, but it appears the Daily Prophet has beat me to it." Dumbledore said, looking somewhat angry when he said the name of the newspaper. "Much of the story is true, however. Mr. Potter lost his hearing several years ago, and has adapted to this change very well. He can read lips very excellently, so if you are speaking to him, please show respect by allowing him to see your face. I am also aware that situations like last night and this morning are very difficult for him, with numerous students crowding close to him and speaking at the same time, so please, respect his space. I expect _all_ of you to be respectful and helpful to Harry, so please do not disappoint me."

"I believe Mr. Potter is also quite proficient in sign language, and I encourage all of you to take the initiative to at least attempt to learn it – I have personally begun to do so. I have requested that Madam Pince order several books on the subject, to be made available in the library."

"I believe that is all, so you may all now enjoy your breakfast." Dumbledore said, sitting down to his own meal.

Breakfast passed quickly, and Harry noticed a difference in the students, most of them not crowding him, but he also saw many students still looking at him with distaste, especially the Slytherins. He saw Ron, Neville and Seamus pointedly ignore him as he passed, and he mentally smiled about that.

_'Harry, I have to get to class, are you going to be studying?' _Hermione asked.

Harry nodded. _'Yeah, I think I'll go to the Library and look at what Professor McGonagall gave me.'_

_'Alright, I'll come by after class and we can go to lunch together.' _Hermione signed.

_Great Hall, Hogwarts Castle – Monday afternoon, 3 January, 1994_

Lunch had gone by without event, and Hermione had gone off to several more classes, while Harry returned to the Library. Looking through the actual class syllabus of each class, he found Defense Against the Dark Arts, Charms, and Transfiguration the most interesting, but he found Potions intriguing as well – he knew that he was talented at cooking – one of the only good things to come out of both his time at the Dursleys, and his time spent on the streets looking through various recipes and imagining what they would taste like, and how hard they would be to make. From what he saw, Potions was very similar, if only a little more exact on how long to stir, and when to add ingredients.

Hermione had returned from classes, and they were walking back to her mum's quarters to drop off Harry's things before they went down for supper. After dropping off his things, they made their way through the relatively crowded hallway, when a boy about Harry's age, with slicked-back platinum blond hair, and two thickset, mean-looking boys shoved Hermione to the side and stopped in front of Harry.

The blond examined Harry snootily, before talking. "Hello, I'm Draco Malfoy. I heard that you were befriending Granger, but I didn't believe it. It appears the rumors are true." The two trollish boys, who seemed to be merely his sidekicks, nodded stupidly in agreement.

"You could do so much better, Harry – get to know me, and I'll teach you how to be a proper member of an Ancient Family. My father has taught me everything about that, and is very proud of me. That includes not mingling with… Mudbloods… like Granger." He said, emphasizing the word "Mudblood", and smirking when Hermione flinched at the word.

Harry nearly lunged at him, but it was only Hermione's hand on his arm, and his remembrance of his discussion with Sirius that kept him from doing so. Instead, his face twisted in a sneer that he usually reserved for people like Stephen, the leader of the gang that had attacked him.

"Well, _Malfoy_" He said, spitting out the name with contempt, "I really don't care about 'ow clean anyone's blood is, or 'ow clean they like to think it is. I judge 'em on 'ow they act. To me, only thing blood's good for is keepin' you alive – an' I've taken a lot o'blood on the streets."

Draco looked positively speechless, and sputtered for a few moments before finally blurting the first thing that came to his mind: "Well, your mum was a Mudblood, and look where that's got you – deaf!"

Harry closed his eye briefly, and managed to contain his anger, if only for the moment. "Well, at least I'm not an inbred little ditz who needs to impress 'is daddy with 'ow many Muggleborns 'e can insult each day." Harry said, glad he read the chapter on Blood Purity the night before, especially the part about purebloods becoming very intermarried, in many cases pairing close cousins together.

During the entire encounter, Hermione had been trying to pull Harry away from Malfoy, but she quickly fond that if he didn't want to be moved, not much could move him. Her hand tightened on his arm when Malfoy insulted Harry's mother, but she realized, even though she didn't want the confrontation to continue, she was secretly happy to see Malfoy get called on his attacks on Muggleborns.

Draco's face turned red as he became angry. "Well, half-blood, since you think blood had no value, and you saw fit to insult the Malfoy family name, I challenge you to a Wizard's duel – tonight, after dinner."

Hermione gasped, and tried to tell Harry not to accept, knowing that Malfoy had much more experience in magic than Harry, especially with the Dark tones of the Malfoy name. "No, Harry, it isn't worth it." She said, looking him in the eyes.

What she saw there, dashed her hopes – she could see that he had already decided not to back down, and she was pretty sure nothing could change his mind. She lowered her eyes. "At least make him agree to a public duel with Professor Lupin being the referee," she said, knowing that Remus would immediately end the duel before anyone was seriously hurt.

"Okay, I accept th'challenge, if it's like Hermione said."

"Agreed." Malfoy said, reaching out his hand.

Harry gripped it firmly and was surprised when a flare of light came from both his hand and Malfoy's wand. As Malfoy strode off with his two goons in tow, Harry turned to Hermione.

He looked at her with a serious expression, and then asked, "What's a Wizard's duel?"

**AN: **Well, hope you enjoyed the chapter. Not sure when I'll have time to transfer the next chapter from Taylor's notebook onto my computer, so it could be two weeks or so until I put up the next chapter, as tis next week all my time will be consumed with packing up and heading to college for this coming semester.

Again, thank you for all of your kind replies.

I've read Book 7, and I've given a "critique" of sorts below, after a "spoiler warning" (for the likely small number of you who haven't already read it).

Next time: Harry's confrontation with Draco continues; first tutoring session with Remus; and first actual classes – Charms and Transfiguration.

-

-

SPOILER ALERT! Spoilers of Book 7 ahead!

SPOILER ALERT!

Well, I read Deathly Hallows. I was relatively entertained by it, and I thought it much better than HBP (which I thought was a disaster). I'm a Harry/Hermione shipper, like Taylor was (and like this story will be), so I didn't really care for the Harry/Ginny moment, or the Hermione/Ron moments (which seemed so forced it wasn't even funny), and I disliked the epilogue, of course.

I'm sort of glad, though, that JKR DIDN'T write H/Hr, given the way she portrayed the Harry/Ginny and Hr/R relationships – I got the feeling that she's not really that great at portraying romantic relationships (the whole Harry/Ginny in HBP reminds me of a bad Sweet Valley High novel). I'm actually relieved that she didn't massacre the H/Hr relationship like that (in fact, it seemed like the moments between Harry and Hermione were more natural and "shippy" when she didn't try to make them that way than the moments between the "couples" when she DID try to make it "shippy")

My favorite example of the unintentional "shippy moments" happened during the wedding chapter: _Trumpetlike sounds from the back of the marquee told everyone that Hagrid had taken out one of his own tablecloth-sized handkerchiefs. Hermione turned and beamed at Harry; her eyes too were full of tears.  
"…then I declare you bonded for life."_

Overall it was a satisfactory read, and an okay end to the series.

I do have some criticisms I'd like to share with you all.

First, I noticed a glaring plothole: In the last book, she stated there were six Horcruxes, plus the fragment still inside Voldemort. In DH there were eight, not seven.  
1) Tom's diary (destroyed in CoS)  
2) Marvolo's ring (destroyed by DD offscreen)  
3) the RAB locket (destroyed in HP7)  
4) Helga Hufflepuff's cup (destroyed in HP7)  
5) Rowena Ravenclaw's diadem (destroyed in HP7)  
6) Nagini (destroyed by Neville in HP7)  
7) Harry (accidental Horcrux, destroyed by Voldemort)  
8) Voldemort (destroyed by Voldemort's own actions)

Second, more of a nitpick, in DH it says that Hermione's middle name is JEAN, contrary to Jo's previous statements that it was JANE.

Third, she totally ignored the "power the dark lord knows not". I mean really, the "power" is just some sort of beefed up wand that makes AK work bass-ackwards? That's a big plot-hole that bugged me.

Fourth, I didn't really care for the epilogue itself, not just the shipping part of it – it really didn't do much for me – it seemed like I was reading the ending of a mediocre fanfic, and in fact I've seen many with the exact same sort of ending.

Finally, I disliked how she had Hermione erase herself from her parent's memories, and then never mentions her parents again. However, I really think that the erasing was one of the parts that showed how strong H/Hr's relationship was – I mean look at what she was willing to give up for Harry!

Overall, however, I am satisfied with the book, even with all of the parts I disliked. It isn't a favorite by any means - it has nothing on PoA, GoF, and OotP, but it is better quality than HBP was.

Well thanks for listening to my rant – I'd also like to hear what you all think of the book.

One last thing – How could you kill off Hedwig, JKR!?

Really, that was the only death in the book that brought tears to my eyes.

[/END SPOILERS


	10. Chapter 8: Classes

Hi everyone. I'm finally moved out to my apartment for college (believe me, moving an apartment worth of stuff from Saint Louis to Denver ain't fun), and got a new motherboard for my computer, and I finally had some time to transcribe the next chapter.

This chapter is mainly Taylor's, with some minor corrections made.

Once again, I extend thanks to **Jadesabrexiv** of Portkey, who did the beta-ing for this chapter.

Hope you enjoy the chapter.

Disclaimer: It's JKR's, not mine. All of the characters, settings, and ideas from the books belong to JK Rowling. I have never, and will never profit from these writings. The only things that are mine are the parts of the plot differing from the books, any original characters, and the characterization of Hermione's parents.

Key: Sentences in italics and single quotes indicate sign language. _'Sort of like this'_

**Chapter 8: Classes**

_Entrance Hall, Hogwarts Castle – Monday evening, 3 January, 1994_

_"Agreed." Malfoy said, reaching out his hand._

_Harry gripped it firmly and was surprised when a flare of light came from both his hand and Malfoy's wand. As Malfoy strode off with his two goons in tow, Harry turned to Hermione._

_He looked at her with a serious expression, and then asked, "What's a Wizard's duel?"_

Hermione looked at him with a smile for a minute, until she realized he was being truly serious about his question. Her expression became incredulous, and she began to sputter, as she had thought he had likely read about it in the _Guide to the Wizarding World_ book based on how readily he had agreed to the duel. "H-Harry! You just…. You just agreed to a Wizard's duel and y-you don't even know what it is?"

Harry at least had the grace to look embarrassed. "Well, not really…"

Hermione passed her hand over her face, and then sighed. _'Harry, a Wizard's duel like the one you just agreed to is a fight between two wizards, until the referee calls the winner – usually it is until one of the wizards gets hurt or knocked out, or loses their wand to the other wizard.'_

Harry's eyes lit up. _'This'll be easy then! Malfoy is a lot weaker than most people on the street are, and I've been able to win a lot of fights there,'_ Harry began, until he saw Hermione lower her eyes and shake her head.

_'Harry, a Wizard's duel is Magical, not physical. In fact there's no physical contact allowed – if you try to even touch him, he'll be declared the winner.'_

She saw Harry's expression dim greatly_. 'Well… I guess I'll just have to beat him that way. He's only had a few more years than me to learn magic, hasn't he?'_

_'The Malfoy family is known for its Dark Magic ties, and Draco has been probably training since he was little, learning every spell he could, at least the ones that can cause harm, the ones that are just below the line of being considered Dark Magic. You could be hurt badly!'_ Hermione signed, and while thinking about it, becoming more worried about the whole thing.

She made up her mind quickly as to what they would do. _'Okay, Harry, let's drop our things off at my mum's quarters, and then I'll go to Gryffindor Tower and get some of my Defense against the Dark Arts books, to teach you some quick spells, while you go off to Professor Lupin and tell him about this great mess you've gotten yourself into, and I'll meet you there.'_

'_Okay,'_ signed a relieved Harry, glad that she had figured out some sort of plan. They hurried to Emma's quarters and dropped off their things, speeding inside past Blackie, who looked at them in bewilderment. They parted ways at the door, Harry heading toward Professor Lupin's office, which he had been shown earlier that day. He spent the whole way silently berating himself for taking up Malfoy on his offer without knowing what a Wizard's Duel really was – and also worrying because it had seemed like Hermione was angry with him for accepting the Duel, and he didn't want to already lose a friendship over the whole thing.

Hermione ran up the stairs toward Gryffindor House. She darted past Ronald Weasley, who only registered her presence in time to shout some snide comment up the stairs at her. Parvati was exiting the Fat Lady portrait, and, seeing Hermione, actually held it open for her. As Hermione moved quickly up the stairs to the Third Year girl's dormitory, she thought back and realized that Parvati had actually been… _friendly _to her during the day. She had noticed the change shortly after the school had found out Harry was deaf, and she wondered if that had something to do with it.

Hermione shook those thoughts from her head as she dug through her trunk for every Defense book she had, and since she had bought several that had not been required over the past three years, she managed to come up with five – ignoring the books that the fraud Lockhart had assigned them the previous year.

Hermione grabbed the stack of books, and hurried back down the stairs and out the portrait door. She moved quickly across the castle and down to the second floor where Professor Lupin's office was. She could hear heard Lupin speaking inside, so she rapped softly on the door.

"Come on in, the door's unlocked." Remus called out. She opened the door and entered, and saw Harry and Remus sitting in chairs facing each other. "Ah, Hermione. Harry just got done telling me that he's got himself into a Wizard's duel with Draco Malfoy." Remus said, a slight frown on his face.

Hermione bit her lip nervously, and said, "Y-yes Professor," she said. Her gaze flickered briefly to Harry, who she realized seemed almost frightened at how Lupin was going to react at the news, something she knew likely came from his time at the Dursleys. "Professor don't be angry at Harry! Malfoy was saying horrible things about me, and then about Harry's mum. He- he said that the reason Harry is deaf is because his mum was a Muggleborn, only he called her a…"

Remus smiled slightly as she started to ramble, and raised his hand, cutting her off. "Hermione, Harry already told me most everything that happened, including how you tried to stop him." He looked over at Harry. "Don't worry, Harry, I'm not angry at you – I would have probably done the same thing in your place at your age, and probably even today. I'm just worried for you, because duels can be very dangerous, and you don't have much experience with magic."

Hermione spoke up at that point. "Professor Lupin, Malfoy agreed to the Duel with you being the referee."

Remus looked relieved. "Well, that's good. I'll be able to end it before anyone gets very hurt." He turned all the way to face Harry. "Now, Harry, it looks like our first tutoring session will be a sort of crash-course in spells you can use in the duel."

Hermione pulled up a chair and set her books heavily on Remus' desk. She sat down, and Remus took out his wand. "Okay, Harry, let's get started. The most useful thing for you right now will probably be the Shield Spell. The incantation for it is _Protego_…"

_Great Hall, Hogwarts Castle – Monday evening, 3 January, 1994_

Remus had spoken quietly to Dumbledore at the beginning of supper about the Duel, and he hadn't looked very pleased, but when he heard that it had been an Oath Duel, he knew there was nothing he could do. Oath Duels were Wizarding Duels in which the two Duelists agreed to the duel, and their Magic flared and took it as a Magical Oath. Breaking that oath could end in complete loss of magic, and sometimes even death.

As the meal was winding down, Dumbledore stood and addressed the students. "It has come to my attention that Mister Draco Malfoy has challenged Mister Harry Potter to a Wizard's Duel. As it is an official Duel, it will be held publicly here in the Great Hall in a few moments. I would ask that all of you leave your House tables, and stand along the sides of the walls if you wish to view the Duel. If you do not wish to do so, you may leave the Great Hall."

There was a lot of murmuring as the students made their way over to stand along the walls. Most of the Slytherins were smirking in Harry's direction. Many of those in Gryffindor were oddly silent, likely because from what they had heard, Harry did not know much about magic, and they did not think it was likely that their fellow Gryffindor would win the duel.

Ronald Weasley was surprisingly silent, as he really didn't know who he wanted to win – he had despised Draco for years, and yet Harry had completely humiliated him, and made him grovel and apologize to the know-it-all. He decided neither should win, and began hoping for a mutual knockout.

At the staff table, as Dumbledore made the announcement, Emma's mouth dropped open, and she began to look worried. Remus saw her expression, and leaned over to apologize for forgetting to let her know about the Duel.

Finally all the students had gone near the walls, and Dumbledore waved his wand and the tables and chairs in the hall disappeared. He flicked his wand again, and a large ring was drawn on the floor in the center of the Great Hall. "Mr. Potter, Mr. Malfoy, please step into the circle."

Harry stepped into the circle, looking over at the smirking Malfoy who did the same. With another flick of Dumbledore's wand, a huge, nearly-transparent dome appeared around them, its base being the circle. Madam Pomfrey, who had been quickly summoned by Dumbledore and told about the duel, stood near the Dueling ring, ready to tend to the inescapable injuries that would be received during the duel.

"This dome will protect the students from stray spells. Now, Professor Lupin has been selected as the referee for this duel, and he will decide who the victor is, and when to stop the duel."

Remus stepped up to the dome, and addressed Harry and Draco. "Okay, basic rules: no lethal or illegal spells are allowed; keep the spells that can cause serious injury to a minimum; keep the fight clean. As this is a Wizard's Duel, no physical contact is allowed. The instigator of any physical contact will immediately be declared defeated. The loss of your wand to your opponent will signal an immediate end to the match. Are both of you clear on the rules?"

Both of the boys nodded. Harry looked quickly over to Hermione, who was standing along the wall, looking extremely nervous already. She saw his glance, and a quick, reassuring smile flitted across her face. Harry took a deep breath, and pulled out his wand as Draco did the same. Remus walked over to where Harry could see his face. "Okay, both of you ready?" They both nodded. "Begin the Duel." Remus announced.

Draco's wand snapped up and he quickly shot off a spell, but Harry was already stepping quickly to the side. The bluish curse whizzed past him and hit the dome and was immediately absorbed by it.

Draco sent off another spell, and this time Harry sidestepped again, and also flicked his wand forward, saying the incantation for a Stinging Hex that he had learned from Hermione. The yellowish spell flew toward Draco, who tried to copy Harry in his dodges. He was not quick enough, and the spell glanced off his left leg, causing him to grimace.

His wand flashed again, this time sending off two spells in quick succession. Harry saw he couldn't dodge both, so he raised his own wand. "_Protego,_" he incanted, and a purplish shield over half as tall as he was snapped into place, and deflected the larger spell, but it was weakened enough by that hit that Draco's own Stinging Hex punched through it and slammed into Harry's side. It wasn't at full power due to going through the shield, but it still caused a sharp pain in his side, which he pushed quickly to the back of his mind.

Going on the offensive, Harry sent off another Stinging Hex as well as a weak Stunning spell – something he had found easy to learn having already used an uncontrolled one just days before, but difficult to control the power of the spell. Malfoy dodged the Stunning spell, but the Stinging Hex struck his wand arm, causing him to gasp in pain, and his grip on his wand loosened temporarily.

Harry smiled humorlessly at Draco, when a flicker of fear crossed over his face as he realized that Harry wasn't quite the pushover he had expected. Seeing the smile, Draco's face turned red, and he became enraged, the things Harry had said about his Pureblood heritage running through his head.

Draco's eyes narrowed, and he began to send out a barrage of various coloured spells that Harry had no clue as to what they were. Harry was sent on the defensive: sidestepping, diving, sometimes somersaulting, and other times having to resort to throwing up a _Protego_, which, as he had not quite mastered it yet, often allowed some spells to pass through like the earlier spell. His right arm was bleeding slightly from a successful Cutting Hex, and his left elbow had a purple welt from the concussive force of a minor Bludgeoning Hex.

He was still on his feet, however, and still weaving to avoid as many spells as possible. A quick glance up while Draco paused a moment to catch his breath allowed him to spot Hermione, Luna and Susan in the crowd, all looking worried – Hermione quite pale and with her hands covering her mouth.

His attention snapped back to the duel as he saw Draco's wand again move toward him, sending out another barrage of spells. The Duel had already been going on for nearly five minutes, and both Harry and Draco were beginning to tire. Harry dove to the side, and launched another stinging hex at the same time Draco shot off a nasty-looking scarlet spell. Harry tried to move again, but his foot slipped on the stone chips thrown up by a Bludgeoning Hex that had missed.

Draco, on the other hand, hadn't even seen the spell shot at him until it was almost there. His eyes widened, and he managed a grunt of surprise before the Hex hit him straight-on in the throat. Shocking pain hit him, and he grasped desperately at his throat, gasping for air, and only barely remembering to keep his wand gripped in his hand.

Harry's slip on the loose stones proved disastrous for him. His left leg flew out from under him, and he had to throw his arms out to attempt to maintain balance and not fall flat on his back. In doing so, his left arm flew out directly in the path of the scarlet spell Draco had sent at him. The spell hit his forearm, and he felt a bone snap sharply, and then doubled over when a wave of pain washed over him.

It triggered a short flashback in his mind of Vernon twisting his arm until it broke. Between the pain and the painful memory, he began to feel something build up inside of him. As it grew stronger, he realized it felt exactly like a few days ago when he had Stunned the attacking gang of boys. He knew now that it was the feeling of his magic reacting in an attempt to protect him.

His right hand, the one holding his wand, directed the wand at the gasping Draco with barely a thought from Harry, and then he felt the magic explode outward, coursing down his arm, through his wand, and out toward Draco. A flash of light enveloped Draco, dazzling the eyes of most everyone in the audience. Harry collapsed to the floor, hugging his wounded arm to his stomach, still firmly gripping his wand, and gasping as he felt the energy of the magic leave him.

Hermione heard the clattering of a wand upon the floor, and when the bright light cleared, she saw Malfoy's wand on the floor, but Malfoy himself was nowhere to be seen. Lying on the floor in his place, was, she realized with a short giggle, a Draco-sized sewing needle.

Many of the others, especially those in Gryffindor started sniggering, and soon most of the students were laughing aloud. Hermione saw that even Remus was struggling to keep a straight face. Then she looked past him and saw Harry kneeling on the floor in obvious pain, and all the humour of the situation left her.

Remus, quite happy to end the Duel, announced quickly, "Harry Potter is the winner of this Duel." He looked to Dumbledore, who hastily waved his wand, lowering the dome. Madame Pomfrey quickly rushed in, and began to tend to Harry.

As the dome fell, Hermione and her mother, almost as one, rushed over to join Madame Pomfrey. Poppy knelt down next to Harry, and drew his attention to her, before pulling out her wand and quickly running several diagnostic spells. She then gently took Harry's arm, the movement causing him to wince in pain, and felt for the broken bone her spells had indicated.

Harry looked up from his arm, and saw Hermione and Emma waiting anxiously behind Madam Pomfrey. Poppy smiled gently at Harry, and said, "Well, Mr. Potter, you have a clean break of your ulna, which should be easy enough to mend. I'll have to give you some more Skele-grow, but this time you will be awake, so I'll warn you it might be somewhat painful while it works."

She waved a wand across the cut on his arm, and it began to mend itself due to the healing spell she used. She then took out a potion, and poured a steaming beaker-full of the Skele-grow, and handed it to Harry to drink. Harry gulped it down, grimacing at the burning sensation it caused in his mouth, and then wincing slightly as he felt the slight pain in his arm as the potion began to do its work.

She waved her wand once again, and rigged up a temporary sling for Harry's arm. "You should be all healed up within the hour, Harry. Now, excuse me, I have to go see what I must do for our resident needle." She said to him, a hint of a grin on her face.

As soon as she picked up her bag and made her way over to Malfoy, Emma and Hermione rushed forward. Hermione grabbed him in a hug, making sure to avoid his healing arm. Emma gave him a quick hug as well, and both looked at him in worry.

_'Are you alright Harry?' _Hermione signed to him.

Harry gave a brief nod, but realized he would have difficulty signing for the next hour. "Yeah, I'm okay. Arm 'urts a little, but… I've 'ad worse." He said, his expression darkening a moment as he remembered just how much worse he had experienced.

Hermione, finally satisfied that he was alright, began grinning. _'Harry, you were wonderful in that duel, especially when you only learned most of those spells a little over an hour ago. I especially liked that last spell.'_ She signed with a laugh.

Harry grinned as well, looking over at Malfoy who was being Transfigured back from the giant needle Harry had changed him into. "Didn't realize it was poss'ble to do that," Harry said, "I just felt my magic start t'build up, an' didn't even think 'bout what spell was going t'come out."

Remus had walked over while they had been talking, and he spoke up. "I was very impressed, Harry. You learned those spells very quickly and held your own against someone with several years more experience than you. I think you'll be able to catch up to everyone else in third year very quickly if you continue to apply yourself like you did for these spells."

Malfoy was now transfigured back, and a pain-soothing spell had been applied to his throat. Once Madam Pomfrey was finished, he got up, glared hatefully at Harry, and left the Great Hall without a word, ignoring the stinging jeering he was getting from the other houses, especially Gryffindor.

Luna and Susan quickly joined the now-growing crowd around Harry. Behind them, two redheaded boys who appeared to be identical twins, both looking to be a few years older than he was, made their way over. He could see a family resemblance between them and Ronald Weasley, so he braced himself for any sort of "payback" they may have in mind for his little confrontation with Ron.

He was surprised when, as Hermione moved to the side so they could get closer to Harry, they took turns shaking his hand, in a comically exaggerated way.

The one on the left spoke first, and he soon found they had a peculiar way of speaking: one would start a sentence, and the other would finish it.

"Hello, Harry, we're very glad to meet you,"

"His name is Fred Weasley,"

"And his name is George Weasley."

"We thought we'd introduce ourselves,"

"And get to know the kid who humiliated Malfoy so aptly."

Harry's eyes flashed back and forth between the two as they spoke. "Er, well, nice t'meet you too." Harry said, hoping he had caught everything they had been saying.

The one who had been introduced as George spoke again, and Harry tensed at his first statement.

"We heard you had a little run-in,"

"With our little brother Ron."

When they didn't say anything else, Harry nodded cautiously, and saw even Hermione looking uncertain. "Yeah, I did."

"We'd like to extend our apologies,"

"For the problems Ronnie caused you four,"

"Because he's become quite a prat over the years,"

"And we're quite ashamed at some of the things he has stooped to."

"If he bugs you any more just let us know,"

"And we'll take care of him for you."

Harry was pleasantly surprised, and soon realized that the twins were basically the exact opposite of Ron. They talked some more about the duel, but eventually had to leave when Madam Pomfrey bustled over to check on how the Skele-grow was working.

They were, Harry decided, people who he could definitely get along with, and eventually become friends with, whether their brother liked that or not.

_Professor Granger's Quarters, Hogwarts Castle - 3 January, 1994_

Madam Pomfrey had given Harry a clean bill of health, and had removed the sling from his now-mended arm, and he had been given permission to leave the Great Hall. Remus had bid his goodnights, as he had to get up early the next day to prepare for a morning Defense with First-year Gryffindor and Hufflepuff students.

Harry entered the portrait that was the entrance to Emma's living quarters, and almost immediately sprawled out on the couch, exhausted from the huge amount of power he had expended during the Duel.

Hermione, not quite ready to go to bed, and also needing to pick up her things from where she had left them to run to Gryffindor tower, had come along, and decided to stay for a while.

Blackie jumped up onto the couch next to Harry, looking both worried about his exhausted state, and confused as to what had happened between Harry and Hermione running in and throwing their things down, and now. Harry finally realized that he had not said a word to Sirius before the duel, so he had no clue as to what had happened. He made a mental note to tell Sirius about it later after everyone went to bed.

He settled for petting Sirius while he sat there, looking at the fire. Hermione had sat on the couch on the other side of Sirius, and had taken some parchment from her bag, and was currently working on some assignment.

Harry remained silent for several minutes. He finally looked over at her, watched her for a moment, scribbling furiously with a quill, a slight furrow of concentration in her brow, and finally spoke to her.

"Hermione, can I ask you somethin'?"

Hermione looked up, startled at the interruption. She set down her quill and turned fully to look directly at Harry. "Of course, Harry." She said, looking questioningly at him.

"Well, it might be personal, an' you don't have to tell me if y'don't want to, but, um, I saw you were limpin' before when y'came to Remus' office, an' then on our way t'supper. Did you 'urt your leg when you were gettin' the books?"

A shadow of some unreadable emotion passed over her face. "Y-you could tell I was limping? Usually people don't even notice it."

Harry shrugged. "Well, it wasn't very bad of a limp, but I could tell y'were walkin' a bit different."

Hermione looked reluctant, but answered his question. "During my first year, I was attacked by a huge creature called a cave troll. He had a big wooden club, and hit me several times in the leg with it. I-I think if Professor McGonagall hadn't gotten there and stopped the troll, I wouldn't be alive now. I was taken to the Hospital Wing, and Madam Pomfrey started fixing my leg – the troll had given me a compound break, which means several parts of the bone were broken, and a lot of it was splintered."

She took a deep, calming breath before continuing, "I had to take Skele-grow like you did, but with as many breaks as I had, it was almost impossible to heal it perfectly. So, a few parts of the bone in my leg are irregular, and if I do a lot of running, like I did yesterday, it ends up hurting the muscles in my leg that run along the bone, and I get a bit of a limp."

She finished her explanation, looking pale at reliving the entire ordeal over in her mind. Harry looked at her with concern – seeing a tear leak from one of her eyes and down her cheek – reached out over Blackie, and for the first time since he met her, initiated a brief hug on his own. Hermione hugged him back after a moment, holding fiercely onto him, and he could feel several hot tears fall on his shoulder.

She pulled back and was using her hands to wipe away the tears still on her cheeks, when Harry spoke to her. "I-I'm sorry, Hermione, I should've just not asked you. I didn't know it was anythin' like that. I know what it's like t'remember bad things like that, so I'm sorry I made y'tell me."

Hermione gave him a watery smile_. 'It's fine, Harry. Like you said, you didn't know, and there was nothing wrong with you asking me. I just… that's one of the things in my past I don't like remembering, and now you know.'_

Harry nodded quickly_. 'I know how you feel.'_ Harry signed, and then hesitated a moment before asking the other question burning in his mind. _'Are you mad at me for accepting the Duel with Malfoy? You seemed a little angry with me when you were explaining the duel to me.' _He signed in question.

Hermione's eyes widened in shock. _'No! I'm not mad at you. If he had done the same to me I probably would've accepted the Duel…. although I would've known what I was getting into.' _Hermione signed, a teasing grin on her face. _'The only one I was angry at was Malfoy for what he said, and I was a little worried about you dueling with him.'_

Harry looked very relieved. _'Okay, I was worried I'd already ruined us being friends by jumping at the Duel without knowing what it was.'_

Hermione shook her head firmly. _'No, Harry, I really like you, and you've been one of the best friends I've had, and I've only known you the past few days. I wouldn't go and toss that away because of something silly like that.'_

A smile broke out over Harry's face, and he signed, _'Thanks Hermione.'_

His mind now at ease, he sat back on the couch once again, and grabbed _**Hogwarts, A History **_from where he had set it on the table, and began to read it. Hermione watched him until she was sure that he was truly okay, and then went back to her homework assignment.

_Great Hall, Hogwarts Castle – Tuesday morning, 4 January, 1994_

Harry sat next to Hermione at breakfast, and read the _Daily Prophet _with her. They didn't have nearly as much of a revealing article as they had published the day before, but most of the paper was dedicated to a sort of "Potter special", in which they printed various stories from the past involving Harry, had a sort of timeline of the defeat of Voldemort all the way up to current time, and had several pages of various opinion articles and editorials on Harry's return, the fact that he was deaf, how the Wizarding world would change now that he had been found, and pretty much anything else they could cram into the paper.

He felt his mind whirl as once again he saw all of this coverage solely on him, and he found himself thinking of what would have happened if the same thing had happened to him, except for Voldemort's defeat. He knew that there would likely not even be a mention of him in the paper – all of this was solely due to fame for some event that had occurred that he could only vaguely remember in dreams.

He bit into another piece of bacon, and then broke off the end and gently fed it to Hedwig who was perched on the back of his chair. The previous day, after lunch, Hermione had enough time to show him where the Owlery was, and he took Hedwig there so that she would not be cooped up in a small cage, and so that she could come and go as she pleased.

He had been surprised when he saw her fly in along with the various other owls carrying the morning paper, and the Owl Post for the day. She had been carrying nothing, and she landed gently on the arm he had held out, and playfully nipped his fingers. While he was not sure why she had come that morning (Hermione had suggested that she was already making a Familiar Bond with him), but he welcomed her companionship.

Today would be the first day that he would attend classes, and he was excited, as well as a bit nervous. He and Hermione had Charms right after breakfast, and then Transfiguration right after lunch.

Breakfast was over more quickly than he had expected, and the next thing he knew, he was hurrying along the corridors behind Hermione. She led them up several flights of stairs to the third floor, and down a long corridor to a large classroom. As Harry entered the classroom, he saw they were the first students there.

There were several rows of tables in the room, with three chairs to each of them, and a desk and blackboard in the front of the classroom. A large window on the wall gave a view of what he guessed could only be the front drive leading up to the Entrance Hall.

Hermione immediately sat in one of the chairs in the front row, and Harry sat next to her in the middle chair. He pulled out his Charms textbook – _Standard Book of Spells Grade 3_, as well as several pieces of parchment, and his Easy-Notes quill, which he would activate with a tap of his wand once class started.

Other students began to trail into the class – Weasley saw Harry in the front and immediately led his group to sit in the back row. As more students entered, Harry recognized that some of them had Hufflepuff colours, and remembered Hermione telling him that most any class was made up of students of a particular year, from two Houses. He saw Susan come in, and she made her way to the front and sat on the other side of Harry.

"Good morning Harry, good morning Hermione. Are you ready for your first class, Harry?" She asked him.

Harry nodded enthusiastically. "I looked through the syllabus, and I think Charms will be very interesting, so I'm looking forward to this class."

"Well, I see someone is as enthusiastic about school as you are, Hermione. You may just have some competition here." Susan said teasingly.

Hermione blushed, and leaned over to respond so Harry could see her. "Well, it will be nice to have someone that likes learning as much as I do." She paused and then added – "I think you'll like this class, Harry. You seem to take to Charms much easier than Transfiguration spells, so I think this will be an easy class for you."

Susan was about to say something else, the door opened to reveal a very small old man. He smiled enthusiastically at the students, and walked to the front of the room. He walked up to the front row of tables, barely a head taller than the tops of the tables. He waved his wand, and some books flew off the shelf and stacked themselves in front of the table, and he hopped up onto them, and extended a hand to Harry.

Harry reached out and shook it, and the old man spoke to him, making sure he didn't try to exaggerate words, which Emma had told him would only make it harder to understand, "Hello, Harry, my name is Filius Flitwick, and I'm the Charms Professor. I hope to get to know you much better over the semester – please be sure to come to me if you have any questions about the class. I must say, you performed magnificently in that Duel yesterday. As a former Dueling champion when I was younger, I was impressed with how you handled yourself."

Harry blushed slightly at the praise. "Er… thanks Professor."

Flitwick released his hand, and then waved his wand, causing the books beneath him to hover and move up to the center of the room, carrying him with them. He let them settle down, and then addressed the class. "Today, and for the next two weeks, we will begin working on a charm that is rather simple once you practice it a bit – the Colour Changing Charm."

Most of the class consisted of going through the pronunciation, and the wand movements for the charm. At the end, they were given some time to experiment, to see how adept they were at the charm. Harry paid close attention to the class, despite the fact that Sirius had already taught him the charm.

At the end of class, Flitwick looked on proudly as Susan, Hermione, Neville, and another Hufflepuff all successfully changed the colour of a rock, to varying degrees – Hermione's was a complete colour change, but she admitted that it was not exactly the colour she had been trying for. Flitwick clapped gleefully when Harry's turn came up, and he changed the rock completely from a brown to a red colour on his second attempt (he deliberately broke his focus on the first attempt, so it didn't appear that he had mastered it so easily).

After class, Susan left to get ready for her next class, and Harry and Hermione walked to the library to kill time before lunch. Hermione had looked somewhat disconcerted after class, about how she hadn't been able to quite master the spell.

As they entered the library and sat down at one of the tables, she turned her attention to Harry. "Harry, you did quite well with that spell today. Umm… could you help me a bit with it tonight when we have our tutoring time?"

Harry smiled broadly at her. "Sure, Hermione, it'll be a lot nicer if I can at least do somethin' t'pay you back for helpin' me out with everythin'."

_Corridors, Hogwarts Castle – Tuesday afternoon, 4 January, 1994_

The morning passed quickly for them in the Library, and before they knew it, they were headed off to lunch. Lunch was a light affair, mainly consisting of various sandwiches and soups. Hermione recommended a turkey and cheese sandwich to him, and he found it to be quite delicious.

After lunch, Harry found himself on the fourth floor in the Transfiguration classroom, again in the front row, sitting with Hermione. Again, Weasley and his friends sat in the back, and this time they had class with Slytherins. Draco entered the room, looking as arrogant as he had the day before when he had challenged Harry to the Duel. He looked distastefully between the front of the room, with Harry and Hermione, and the back of the room, with Ron, Neville, Dean, and Seamus, before he finally settled for sitting in the center, along with the two lumbering boys that seemed to follow him most anywhere.

Parvati, who had inquired about Harry's deafness the day before, took the seat on the other side of Harry just as Professor McGonagall entered the room. She gave a slight nod to Harry as she moved to the front of the room. Harry tapped his Easy-Notes quill with his wand, and it began to scribble as McGonagall began to talk.

"Good morning, students. Today we will continue the process of learning more and more advanced Transfiguration of objects similar to one another. In a few years you will be expected to be able to transfigure one object into something that is completely dissimilar to it – something for those of you who stayed for the duel witnessed with young Mister Potter using the simple spell you all learned in First Year, to transfigure Mr. Malfoy into a sewing needle."

She took a breath before continuing. "However, we will continue to take it one step at a time. Today, and over the next several weeks, you will be learning how to Transfigure teapots into tortoises."

Just like in Charms, much of the class went over the incantation, visualization, and wand movements. By the conclusion of the class, some students, including Harry, succeeded in causing their teapots to have the patterning of a tortoise carapace, while Hermione managed both give it the patterning, as well give it stubby legs and a head.

McGonagall gave them a short assignment: an essay on the proper wand movement and visualization for the spell to be efficient and successful.

When the class was over, they walked back to the library again, and both immediately began to work on writing the essay, which Hermione decided they would likely be finished with by suppertime.

Harry quickly began the assignment, spurred on by a bit of excitement over the tutoring session Hermione was going to give him after supper. He was especially eager to help Hermione out on the Colour Changing Charm, as it was one of the few things he could offer in return for all of her help, and all of the help that she would be giving him over the next semester.

**AN**: Thank you for all of the reviews for the last chapter, especially those in reply to Deathly Hallows – several of them caused my opinions on the book to shift, and some got me thinking on parts that I had seen as plot holes.

Well, the college semester has started for me, and it's already pretty hectic (add to that my part time jobs, and it's even worse). The next chapter should be out rather quickly once I get a paper done that is due this coming week, and get a test out of the way. I'd say no more than two weeks from now to get it done and beta-ed, as there is one more full chapter in Taylor's notebook. After that, I'm really not sure what my update schedule will be, but I'll begin writing it on my own with some of Taylor's fragmented chapters, so it will take longer.

Well, hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Oh, and Happy Early Birthday to Hermione.

Next time: Lessons with Hermione – Harry opens up a little bit; more classes including DADA; first potions class with Snape.


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